GIFT    OF 
EVGENE  MEYER,JR, 


THE  SOUL  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

WILLIAM  E.  BARTON 


THE  SOUL  OF 
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


BY 


WILLIAM  E.  BARTON 

AUTHOR   OF    "  A   HERO   IN   HOMESPUN,"    4<THE 

PRAIRIE   SCHOONER,"    "  PINE   KNOT," 

ETC. 


NEW  >tajr  YORK 

GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1920, 
BY  GEORGE  H,  DORAN  COMPANY 


•Jt 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


TO  MY  FOUR   SONS 

BRUCE,   CHARLES,   FREDERICK,    ROBERT 
AND  MY  SON-IN-LAW,   CLYDE 


PREFACE 

THE  author  is  aware  that  he  is  dipping  his  net  into  a  stream 
already  darkened  by  too  much  ink.  The  fact  that  there  are  so 
many  books  on  the  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  a  chief 
reason  why  there  should  be  one  more.  Books  on  this  subject 
are  largely  polemic  works  which  followed  the  publication  of 
Holland's  biography  in  1865,  and  multiplied  in  the  contro 
versies  growing  out  of  that  and  the  Lamon  and  Herndon 
biographies  in  1872  and  1889  respectively.  Within  that  period 
and  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Herndon  in  1892  and  the  publication 
of  his  revised  biography  of  Lincoln  in  1893,  there  was  little 
opportunity  for  a  work  on  this  subject  that  was  not  distinc 
tively  controversial.  The  time  has  come  for  a  more  dis 
passionate  view.  Of  the  large  number  of  other  books  dealing 
with  this  topic,  nearly  or  quite  all  had  their  origin  in  patriotic 
or  religious  addresses,  which,  meeting  with  favor  when  orally 
delivered,  were  more  or  less  superficially  revised  and  printed, 
in  most  instances  for  audiences  not  greatly  larger  than  those 
that  heard  them  spoken.  Many  of  these  are  excellent  little 
books,  though  making  no  pretense  of  original  and  thorough 
investigation. 

Of  larger  and  more  comprehensive  works  there  are  a  few, 
but  they  do  not  attempt  the  difficult  and  necessary  task  of 
critical  analysis. 

So  much  has  been  said,  and  much  of  it  with  such  intensity 
of  feeling,  on  the  subject  of  Lincoln's  religion,  that  a  number 
of  the  more  important  biographies,  including  the  great 
work  of  Nicolay  and  Hay,  say  as  little  on  the  subject  as 
possible. 

The  author  of  this  volume  brings  no  sweeping  criticism 
against  those  who  have  preceded  him  in  the  same  field.  He 
has  eagerly  sought  out  the  books  and  speeches  of  all  such 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

within  his  reach,  and  is  indebted  to  many  of  them  for  valuable 
suggestions.  A  Bibliography  at  the  end  of  this  volume  con 
tains  a  list  of  those  to  whom  the  author  knows  himself  to  be 
chiefly  indebted,  but  his  obligation  goes  much  farther  than 
he  can  hope  to  acknowledge  in  print.  With  all  due  regard  for 
these  earlier  authors,  the  present  writer  justifies  himself  in 
the  publication  of  this  volume  by  the  following  considerations, 
which  seems  to  him  to  differ  in  important  respects  from  earlier 
works  in  the  same  field : 

(1)  He  has  made  an  effort  to  provide  an  adequate  his 
torical  background  for  the  study  of  the  religious  life  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  in  the  successive  periods  of  his  life;  and  without 
immediately  going  too  deeply  into  the  material  of  the  main 
subject,  to  relate  the  man  to  his  environment.     In  this  the 
author  has  been  aided  not  only  by  books  and  interviews  with 
men  who  knew  Lincoln,  but  by  some  years  of  personal  experi 
ence  in  communities  where  the  social,  educational,  and  religious 
conditions  were  in  all  essential  respects  similar  to  those  in 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  lived  during  two  important  epochs  of  his 
career.    The  author  was  not  born  in  this  environment,  but  he 
spent  seven  years  of  his  youth  and  young  manhood  as  a 
teacher  and  preacher  in  a  region  which  give  him  somewhat 
exceptional  opportunities  for  a  discriminating  judgment. 

(2)  The  author  has  assembled  what  is,  so  far  as  he  knows, 
all  the  essential  evidence  that  has  appeared  in  print  concerning 
the  religious  life  and  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  a  larger  body, 
as  he  believes,  than  any  previous  writer  has  compiled.    He  has 
added  to  this  all  evidence  available  to  him  from  written  and 
personal  testimony. 

He  has  subjected  this  evidence  to  a  critical  analysis,  in  an 
effort  to  determine  the  degree  of  credibility  with  which  its 
several  portions  may  reasonably  be  received.  The  author  is 
not  unaware  that  this  is  the  most  disputable,  as  it  is  the  most 
difficult  part  of  his  task,  and,  as  he  believes,  the  most  valuable 
part  of  it.  Unless  some  such  analysis  is  made,  the  evidence 
resolves  itself  into  chaos. 

(3)  Several  entirely  new  avenues  of  investigation  have 
been  opened  and  lines  of  evidence  adduced  which  find  no  place 


PREFACE  ix 

in  any  previous  book  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  life,  and  very 
scant  reference,  and  that  without  investigation,  in  one  or  two 
of  the  biographies. 

(4)  The  book  also  contains  a  constructive  argument,  set 
ting  forth  the  conviction  to  which  the  author  has  come  with 
regard  to  the  faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  entirely  possible  that  some  readers  will  find  them 
selves  in  essential  agreement  with  the  author  in  the  earlier  parts 
of  the  book,  but  will  dissent  in  whole  or  in  part  from  his  own 
inferences.  Whether  the  reader  agrees  or  disagrees  with  the 
author  in  his  conclusions,  he  will  find  in  this  book  some 
material  not  elsewhere  available  for  the  formation  of  an  inde 
pendent  judgment.  Nevertheless  the  author  counts  himself 
justified  not  only  in  adducing  the  evidence  but  in  stating 
frankly  the  conclusion  which  to  his  mind  this  evidence  sup 
ports. 

This  book  treats  of  the  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  but 
it  does  not  consider  his  religion  as  wholly  expressed  in  his 
theological  opinions.  Important  as  it  is  that  a  man  should 
think  correctly  on  all  subjects,  and  especially  on  a  subject  of 
such  transcendent  value,  religion  is  more  than  a  matter  of 
opinion.  We  cannot  adequately  consider  religion  apart  from 
life.  Abraham  Lincoln's  life  was  an  evolution,  and  so  was 
his  religion.  In  a  way  which  this  volume  will  seek  to  set 
forth,  Lincoln  was  himself  a  believer  in  evolution,  and  his 
life  and  religion  were  in  accord  with  this  process  as  he  held  it. 

This  book  is,  therefore,  more  than  an  essay  on  the  religion 
of  Lincoln,  unless  religion  be  understood  as  inclusive  of  all 
that  is  normal  in  life.  It  deals,  therefore,  with  the  life,  as 
well  as  with  the  opinions,  of  Lincoln;  and  it  considers  both 
life  and  opinion  as  in  process  of  development  in  each  of  the 
successive  stages  of  his  career. 

In  this  respect  the  present  book  may  claim  some  distinctive 
place  in  the  literature  of  this  subject.  Other  books  have  drawn 
sharp  contrasts  between  the  supposed  religious  opinions  of 
Lincoln's  youth  and  those  which  he  is  believed  to  have  cher 
ished  later.  This  book  undertakes  what  may  be  termed  a  study 
of  the  evolution  of  the  spiritual  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


x  PREFACE 

The  author  is  not  aware  that  this  has  been  done  before  in 
quite  this  way. 

The  author  acknowledges  his  obligations  to  many  friends 
for  their  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume.  Mr. 
Jesse  W.  Weik,  of  Greencastle,  Indiana,  associate  of  Mr. 
Herndon  in  the  preparation  of  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  and  owner 
of  the  Herndon  manuscripts,  has  been  generous  to  me.  Mrs. 
Clark  E.  Carr,  of  Galesburg,  Illinois,  widow  of  my  honored 
friend,  and  the  friend  of  Lincoln,  Colonel  Carr,  author  of 
"  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg,"  has  placed  at  my  disposal  all  her 
husband's  books  and  papers.  Mr.  Judd  Stewart,  of  New  York 
City,  owner  of  one  of  the  largest  collections  of  Lincolniana, 
has  assisted  me.  President  John  W.  Cook  of  the  Northern 
Illinois  State  Normal  School  has  suggested  important  lines  of 
research.  Mr.  John  E.  Burton,  of  Lake  Geneva,  Wisconsin, 
whose  collection  of  Lincoln  books  was  once  the  largest  in 
America,  has  sold  me  some  of  his  chief  treasures,  and  imparted 
to  me  much  of  the  fruit  of  his  experience.  Mr.  O.  H.  Oldroyd, 
of  Washington,  owner  of  the  famous  Lincoln  Collection,  and 
custodian  of  the  house  where  Lincoln  died,  has,  on  two  visits, 
placed  all  that  he  has  within  my  reach.  To  these,  and  to  a 
considerable  number  of  men  and  women  who  knew  Lincoln 
while  he  was  yet  living,  and  to  many  others  whom  I  cannot 
name,  my  thanks  are  due. 

I  regret  that  one  great  collection,  consisting,  however,  more 
largely  of  relics  than  of  manuscripts,  is  so  largely  packed  away 
that  it  has  not  been  of  much  use  to  me.  Mr.  Charles  F. 
Gunther  of  Chicago  has,  however,  produced  for  me  such 
Lincoln  material  as  seemed  to  him  to  bear  upon  my  quest, 
and  I  acknowledge  his  courtesy. 

Mr.  Oliver  P.  Barrett  of  Chicago  has  given  me  great  joy 
in  the  examination  of  his  fine  collection  of  Lincoln  manu 
scripts. 

I  have  spent  a  few  pleasant  and  profitable  hours  in  the  col 
lection  of  Honorable  Daniel  Fish,  the  noted  Lincoln  biblio 
grapher,  of  Minneapolis,  and  thank  him  for  his  friendly  inter 
est  in  this  undertaking. 

Among  libraries,  my  largest  debt  is  to  those  of  the  Chicago 


PREFACE 


XI 


Historical  Society,  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  at 
Springfield,  and  the  Library  of  Congress  in  Washington.  In 
each  of  these  I  have  had  not  only  unrestricted  access  to  the 
whole  Lincoln  material  possessed  by  them,  but  the  most  gen 
erous  and  courteous  assistance.  I  have  examined  every  rare 
Lincoln  book,  and  many  manuscripts,  in  these  three  collections. 
I  have  had  occasion  also  to  use  the  Chicago  Public  Library, 
the  Newberry  Library,  and  the  Library  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  as  well  as  those  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary 
and  McCormick  Theological  Seminary.  In  certain  important 
local  matters,  I  have  been  assisted  by  the  libraries  of  Knox 
College,  Galesburg,  Illinois,  Illinois  College,  Jacksonville, 
Illinois,  the  Public  Library  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  the  library 
of  Transylvania  University  at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  I  also 
visited  the  Public  Library  of  Louisville,  with  its  historical 
collections,  but  most  that  I  found  there  I  had  already  con 
sulted  elsewhere.  The  New  York  Public  Library  and  the 
Library  of  Columbia  University  supplemented  my  research  at 
a  few  important  points.  The  Oak  Park  Public  Library  has 
been  constantly  at  my  service.  The  Library  of  Berea  College, 
Kentucky,  has  given  me  very  valuable  assistance  in  finding  for 
me  a  large  amount  of  periodical  literature  bearing  on  my  study. 
The  five  great  Boston  libraries  would  have  yielded  me  much 
had  I  come  to  them  earlier.  While  the  book  was  undergoing 
revision,  I  visited  the  Athenaeum,  the  Massachusetts  State, 
the  Boston  Public,  the  Massachusetts  Historical,  and  the  Har 
vard  University  libraries.  It  was  gratifying  to  discover  that 
even  in  the  last  named  of  these,  enriched  as  it  is  with  the  col 
lections  of  Charles  Sumner,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson, 
and  the  Lincoln  collection  of  my  friend  Alonzo  Rothschild, 
author  of  "  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men/'  there  was  practically 
nothing  relating  to  this  subject  which  I  had  not  already  seen 
and  examined.  In  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Library,  how 
ever,  I  discovered  some  manuscripts,  and  that  quite  unexpect 
edly,  which  afford  me  much  aid  in  a  collateral  study. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  I  have  my  own  Lincoln 
library,  which,  while  a  working  collection  rather  than  one  of 
incunabula,  and  modest  in  size  as  compared  with  some  that 


xii  PREFACE 

I  have  used,  is  still  not  small.  The  Bibliography  at  the  end  of 
the  volume  is  virtually  a  catalogue  of  my  own  Lincoln  books. 
Claims  of  completeness  are  dangerous,  and  I  make  none. 
But  I  have  been  diligent  in  pursuit  of  all  probable  sources  of 
knowledge  of  this  subject,  and  I  do  not  now  know  where 
to  look  for  any  other  book  or  manuscript  that  would  greatly 
alter  or  add  to  the  material  which  this  book  contains.  I  am 
glad,  therefore,  at  this  stage,  to  share  the  fruits  of  my  investi 
gations  with  the  reader. 

W.  E.  B. 

THE  FIRST  CHURCH  STUDY 
OAK  PARK,  ILLINOIS 


CONTENTS 
PART  I:  A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS  ENVIRONMENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    THE  CONFLICT  OF  TESTIMONY 19 

II    WHY  THE  BIOGRAPHIES  DIFFER 24 

III  THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD    .       .  29 

IV  THE  ENVIRONMENTS  OF  LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD  51 
V    THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRING 
FIELD        71 

VI    THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASH 
INGTON     86 


PART  II:  AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EVIDENCE 

VII  THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE 101 

VIII  THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT 114 

IX  THE  LAMON  BIOGRAPHY 128 

X  THE  REED  LECTURE 135 

XI  THE  HERNDON  LECTURES,  LETTERS,  AND  BIOGRAPHY  140 

XII  LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK 146 

XIII  "  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  " 156 

XIV  "  VESTIGES  OF  CREATION  " 166 

XV  OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS 172 

XVI  CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY 188 

XVII  THE  BEECHER  AND  SICKLES  INCIDENTS     .       .       .  198 

XVIII  "  BEHIND  THE  SCENES  " 203 

XIX  FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  AND  IN  THE  CLOSET      .       .210 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PART  III:  THE  RELIGION  OF  LINCOLN 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX  WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  .       .       .  .    .       .  «     225 

XXI  WHY  DID  LINCOLN  NEVER  JOIN  A  CHURCH?  .  .244 

XXII  THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT  .       .       .       .  .260 

XXIII  THE  CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN   .       .       ,  .291 

APPENDICES  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I    EXTRACT  FROM  NEWTON  BATEMAN'S  LECTURE  ON 
LINCOLN  WITH  VARIANTS  OF  THE  SPRINGFIELD 

FAREWELL  ADDRESS 303 

II    "  HIGH-HANDED  OUTRAGE  AT  UTICA  "        .       .       .     307 
By  Artemus  Ward 

III  "  THE  CONVERSION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  "     .       .     309 

By  the  Rev.  Edward  L.  Watson 

IV  THE  REED  LECTURE 314 

V    Two   HERNDON    LETTERS    CONCERNING   LINCOLN'S 

RELIGION         ........     336 

VI    THE  IRWIN  ARTICLE,  WITH  LETTERS  .       .       .       .341 

VII    "THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE" 358 

With  full  chapter  analysis 

VII    LINCOLN  AND  THE  CHURCHES 377 

By  Nicolay  and  Hay 

IX      "  BOUND  TOGETHER  IN   CHRISTIANITY  AND   PATRIOT 
ISM  " 385 

Hitherto   unpublished  address   of  Lincoln 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 387 

INDEX 401 


FART  I:  A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS 
ENVIRONMENTS 


PART  I:  A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS 
ENVIRONMENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  CONFLICT  OF  TESTIMONY 

OF  no  other  American  have  so  many  biographies  been  written 
as  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  No  other  question  concerning  his  life 
has  evoked  more  interest  than  that  of  his  religious  faith  and 
experience.  What  Abraham  Lincoln  believed  has  been  told  by 
many  who  knew  him  and  whose  varied  relations  to  him  during 
his  lifetime  rendered  it  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
could  give  some  assured  answer  to  the  question  of  his  belief. 
The  answers  are  not  only  varied,  but  hopelessly  contradictory. 
It  is  stated  on  apparently  good  authority  that  in  his  young 
manhood  he  read  Volney's  Ruins  and  Paine's  Age  of  Reason, 
and  it  is  affirmed  that  he  accepted  their  conclusions,  and  him 
self  wrote  what  might  have  been  a  book  or  pamphlet  denying 
the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith  as  he  understood 
them.  Friends  of  his  who  knew  him  well  enough  to  forbid 
the  throwing  of  their  testimony  out  of  court  have  affirmed  that 
he  continued  to  hold  these  convictions ;  and  that,  while  he  be 
came  more  cautious  in  the  matter  of  their  expression,  he  car 
ried  them  through  life  and  that  they  never  underwent  any 
radical  change.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  declarations, 
made  by  those  who  also  knew  Lincoln  well,  that  these  views 
became  modified  essentially,  and  that  Lincoln  accepted  prac 
tically  the  whole  content  of  orthodox  Christian  theology  as  it 
was  then  understood ;  that  he  observed  daily  family  worship  in 
his  home ;  that  he  carried  a  Bible  habitually  upon  his  person ; 
and  that  he  was  in  short  in  every  essential  a  professed  Chris 
tian,  though  never  a  member  of  a  Christian  church. 

There  is  more  than  a  conflict  of  testimony;  there  is  posi- 

19 


20     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tive.p1iaos.\  Every  recent  biographer  has  felt  the  inherent  diffi- 
,  cnjtie§ involved  in  it.    One  or  two  of  them  have  passed  it  over 
•  ^k&  pttacticaliy  no  mention ;  others  have  become  fierce  parti 
sans  of  the  one  extreme  or  the  other. 

Besides  the  formal  biographies,  a  literature  of  this  special 
topic  has  grown  up.  Entire  books  and  many  pamphlets  and 
magazine  articles  have  been  written  on  this  one  question.  The 
Chicago  Historical  Society  and  the  Chicago  Public  Library 
have  each  devoted  a  principal  division  in  the  Lincoln  material 
to  the  literature  relating  to  his  religion.  It  has  been  the 
writer's  privilege  to  examine  in  both  these  libraries  and  in 
several  others  the  whole  known  body  of  literature  of  the 
subject. 

In  this  investigation  the  writer  came  face  to  face  with 
utterly  contradictory  testimony  from  men  who  had  known 
Abraham  Lincoln  intimately. 

Of  him  Mr.  Herndon,  for  twenty  years  his  law  partner, 
said: 

"  As  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  views,  he  was,  in  short, 
an  infidel.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  a  thousand  times  that 
he  did  not  believe  the  Bible  was  the  revelation  of  God  as  the 
Christian  world  contends." — LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  489. 

The  direct  antithesis  of  this  statement  is  found  in  a  nar 
rative  of  Hon.  Newton  Bateman,  who  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  from 
1842  until  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  and  whose  office  was  in  the 
State  House  at  Springfield  next-door  to  that  which,  for  a 
period  of  eight  months  from  the  time  of  his  nomination  till 
his  departure  for  his  inauguration,  was  occupied  by  Mr. 
Lincoln.  He  affirmed  (or  at  least  was  so  quoted  by  Holland) 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  him: 

"  I  know  there  is  a  God,  and  that  He  hates  injustice  and 
slavery.  I  see  the  storm  coming,  and  I  know  that  His  hand 
is  in  it.  If  He  has  a  place  and  work  for  me — and  I  think  He 
has — I  believe  I  am  ready.  I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  every 
thing.  I  know  I  am  right  because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right, 
for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is  God." — J.  G.  HOLLAND: 
Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  237. 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  TESTIMONY       21 

Popular  oratory  has  carried  even  farther  these  two  ex 
tremes  of  irreconcilable  contradiction.  On  the  one  hand  are 
to  be  found  scurrilous  publications,  shockingly  offensive 
against  all  good  taste,  declaring  Lincoln  to  have  been  an 
atheist,  a  mocker,  a  hypocrite,  a  man  of  unclean  mind,  and  a 
violator  in  his  speech  of  all  canons  of  decency.  We  will  not 
quote  from  any  of  these  at  present;  but  of  the  length  to  which 
the  other  extreme  can  go,  has  gone,  and  continues  to  go,  let 
the  following  incident,  gleaned  from  a  recent  English  book, 
serve  as  an  illustration : 

"  In  the  year  1861  the  Southern  States  of  America  were 
filled  with  slaves  and  slaveholders.  It  was  proposed  to  make 
Abraham  Lincoln  president.  But  he  had  resolved  that  if  he 
came  to  that  position  of  power  he  would  do  all  he  could  to 
wipe  away  the  awful  scourge  from  the  page  of  his  nation's 
history.  A  rebellion  soon  became  imminent,  and  it  was 
expected  that  in  his  inaugural  address  much  would  be  said 
respecting  it.  The  time  came.  The  Senate  House  was  packed 
with  people;  before  him  was  gathered  the  business  skill  and 
the  intellectual  power  of  the  States.  With  one  son  lying  dead 
in  the  White  House,  whom  he  loved  with  a  fond  father's 
affection;  another  little  boy  on  the  borders  of  eternity;  with 
his  nation's  eternal  disgrace  or  everlasting  honor  resting  upon 
his  speech,  he  speaks  distinctly,  forcefully,  and  without  fear. 
Friend  and  foe  marvel  at  his  collected  movements.  They 
know  of  the  momentous  issues  which  hang  on  his  address. 
They  know  the  domestic  trials  that  oppress  his  heart.  But  they 
do  not  know  that,  before  leaving  home  that  morning,  the 
President  had  taken  down  the  family  Bible  and  conducted 
their  home  worship  as  usual,  and  then  had  asked  to  be  left 
alone.  The  family  withdrawing,  they  heard  his  tremulous 
voice  raised  in  pleadings  with  God,  that  He  whose  shoulder 
sustains  the  government  of  worlds  would  guide  him  and 
overrule  his  speech  for  His  own  glory.  Here  was  the  power 
of  this  man's  strength." — G.  H.  MORGAN  :  Modern  Knights- 
Errant,  p.  104;  quoted  in  Hastings'  Great  Texts  of  the  Bible, 
volume  on  "  Isaiah,"  pp.  237-38. 

This  incident  is  now  an  integral  part  of  the  best  and  most 
recent  homiletic  work  in  the  English  language,  and  will  be 


22     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

used  in  thousands  of  sermons  and  addresses.  It  is  a  story 
that  carries  its  own  refutation  in  almost  every  line.  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  no  son  either  sick  or  dead  and  lying  in  the  White 
House  or  anywhere  else  at  the  time  of  his  first  inaugural,  nor 
had  he  as  yet  entered  the  White  House ;  and  the  hours  of.  that 
day  are  fairly  well  accounted  for;  but  this  and  similar  inci 
dents  illustrate  the  length  to  which  the  oratorical  imagination 
may  carry  a  speaker  either  in  the  pulpit  or  on  the  platform, 
and  not  only  be  preserved  in  books  but  pass  the  supposedly 
critical  eye  of  a  careful  compiler  of  material  for  sermons  and 
lectures. 

If  another  book  is  justified,  it  should  be  one  that  does 
more  than  compile  that  part  of  the  evidence  which  appears  to 
support  a  particular  theory.  The  compilation  should  be  as 
nearly  complete  as  is  humanely  possible.  But  it  must  do  more 
than  plunge  the  reader  into  this  swamp  of  conflicting  testi 
mony.  It  must  somehow  seek  to  evaluate  the  evidence  and 
present  a  reasonable  conclusion. 

Moreover,  in  the  judgment  of  the  present  writer,  religion 
is  more  than  opinion,  and  cannot  be  considered  as  a  detachable 
entity.  Lincoln's  religion  was  more  than  his  belief,  his  con 
jecture,  his  logical  conclusion  concerning  particular  doctrines. 
It  can  only  be  properly  appraised  in  connection  with  his  life. 
While,  therefore,  the  writer  does  not  now  undertake  a  com 
plete  biography  of  Lincoln,  though  cherishing  some  hope  that 
he  may  eventually  write  a  book  of  that  character,  this  present 
work  endeavors  to  study  the  religion  of  Lincoln  not  in  de 
tachment,  but  as  part  and  parcel  of  his  life. 

A  word  may  be  said  concerning  the  author's  point  of  view 
and  the  experience  which  lies  behind  it.  In  his  early  manhood 
he  had  an  experience  of  several  years  which  he  considers  of 
value  as  affording  a  background  for  the  interpretation  of  the 
Lincoln  material.  For  several  years  the  author  taught  school 
and  afterward  preached  in  the  mountain  region  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  amid  social  conditions  essentially  parallel  to 
those  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  born  and  amid  which  he  spent 
his  manhood  up  to  the  time  of  his  going  to  Washington.  The 
same  kind  of  preaching  that  Lincoln  heard,  not  only  in 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  TESTIMONY       23 

Kentucky  but  in  the  backwoods  of  Indiana  and  the  pioneer 
villages  of  central  and  southern  Illinois,  the  present  author 
heard  in  his  own  young  manhood  as  a  teacher  in  district  schools 
far  back  beyond  the  sound  of  the  locomotive's  whistle  or  the 
inroads  of  modern  civilization.  How  that  kind  of  preaching 
affected  the  inquiring  mind  of  the  young  Lincoln,  the  author 
is  sure  he  knows  better  than  most  of  Lincoln's  biographers 
have  known.  The  fierce  theological  controversies  that  waged 
between  the  old-time  Baptists  and  the  itinerant  Methodists,  to 
gether  with  the  emphatic  dogmatism  of  the  Southern  type  of 
Presbyterianism  as  it  was  held  and  preached  in  the  Kentucky 
mountains  forty  years  ago  and  in  southern  Illinois  and  Indiana 
eighty  years  ago  are  part  of  the  vivid  memory  of  the  present 
writer.  A  young  man  who  refused  to  accept  this  kind  of 
teaching  might  be  charged  with  being  an  infidel,  and  might 
easily  suppose  himself  to  be  one;  but  whether  that  would  be  a 
just  or  fair  classification  depends  upon  conditions  which  some 
of  the  controversialists  appear  not  to  have  known  or  to 
have  been  capable  of  appreciating  through  lack  of  experience 
of  their  own. 

This  book  attempts,  therefore,  to  be  a  digest  of  all  the 
available  evidence  concerning  the  religious  faith  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  It  undertakes  also  to  weigh  that  evidence  and  to 
pass  judgment,  the  author's  own  judgment,  concerning  it. 
If  the  reader's  judgment  agrees  with  the  author's,  the  author 
will  be  glad;  but  if  not  at  least  the  facts  are  here  set  forth 
in  their  full  essential  content. 


CHAPTER  II 
WHY  THE  BIOGRAPHIES  DIFFER 

THE  many  biographies  of  Abraham  Lincoln  differ  widely  in 
their  estimate  of  his  religious  opinions  and  life,  partly  be 
cause  the  biographers  approach  the  subject  from  widely  dif 
fering  angles,  and  some  of  them  are  seeking  in  advance  the 
establishment  of  particular  conclusions.  But  apart  from  that 
personal  bias,  from  which  no  author  can  claim  to  be  wholly 
free,  the  biographical  study  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  itself 
an  evolution  whose  main  outlines  and  processes  it  will  be 
profitable  briefly  to  consider. 

The  first  printed  biographies  of  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  in 
1860.  They  were  the  familiar  campaign  biography,  such  as 
is  issued  for  every  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  first 
man  who  approached  Mr.  Lincoln  with  a  proposal  to  write 
his  Life  was  J.  L.  Scripps  of  the  Chicago  Tribune.  Mr. 
Lincoln  deprecated  the  idea  of  writing  any  biography. 

"  Why,  Scripps,  [said  he]  it  is  a  great  piece  of  folly  to 
attempt  to  make  anything  out  of  me  or  my  early  life.  It 
can  all  be  condensed  into  a  single  sentence,  and  that  sentence 
you  will  find  in  Grey's  '  Elegy  ' : 

'  The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor' 

That's  my  life,  and  that's  all  you  or  anyone  else  can  make 
out  of  it." — HERNDON,  I,  2. 

Lincoln  felt  the  meagerness  of  his  biographical  material, 
but  the  biographers  succeeded  in  making  books  about  him, 
Scripps  wrote  his  booklet,  and  it  appeared  in  thirty-two 
closely  printed  double-column  pages,  and  sold  at  twenty-five 
cents.  It  is  now  excessively  rare.  Lincoln  read  the  proof 
and  approved  it.  The  "  Wigwam  "  Life  of  Lincoln  appeared 

24 


WHY  THE  BIOGRAPHIES  DIFFER       25 

simultaneously  with  the  Scripps  booklet,  and  it  is  not  quite 
certain  which  of  the  two  emerged  first  from  the  press.  It 
contained  117  pages,  of  which  the  last  seven  were  devoted  to 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  Republican  candidate  for  Vice-President. 
This  also  had  a  wide  sale,  and  is  now  very  rare.  That  Lin 
coln  did  not  read  the  proofs  of  this  book  is  evidenced  by  the 
name  "  Abram  "  instead  of  "  Abraham  "  on  its  title  page  and 
throughout  the  book.  It  relates  that  "  when  he  was  six  years 
old,  his  father  died,  leaving  a  widow  and  several  children, 
poor  and  almost  friendless  " ;  and  in  other  respects  shows  that 
Lincoln  did  not  furnish  the  data  of  it,  and  also  indicates  how 
meager  was  the  biographical  material  at  hand  outside  the 
little  sketch  which  Lincoln  prepared  for  Scripps. 

Another  pamphlet,  containing  216  pages,  was  "The  Au 
thentic  Edition "  by  J.  H.  Barrett,  and  still  another,  the 
"  Authorized  "  edition  by  D.  W.  Bartlett,  which  extended  to 
354  pages  and  was  bound  in  cloth.  Perhaps  the  best  of  these 
campaign  biographies  of  1860  was  that  written  by  William 
Dean  Howells,  then  a  young  man  and  unknown  to  fame.  Ap 
parently  Lincoln  furnished  to  each  of  these  writers — except 
the  Wigwam  edition — essentially  the  same  material  which 
he  had  given  to  Scripps,  or  else  they  borrowed  from  Scripps, 
with  permission,  and  to  this  extent  they  were  "  authorized  " 
or  "  authentic."  But  there  is  no  indication  that  Lincoln  read 
any  of  them  except  that  of  Scripps.  Even  this  must  have  sur 
prised  him  when  he  beheld  how  his  little  sketch  could  be 
spread  out  over  as  many  as  thirty-two  pages. 

The  campaign  of  1864  brought  out  a  new  crop  of  cam 
paign  biographies,  and  these  used  essentially  the  same  material 
up  to  1860,  and  found  their  new  matter  in  the  history  of  the 
Civil  War  up  to  the  date  of  their  publication. 

This  campaign  material  still  stood  in  type  or  stereotyped 
pages  when  Lincoln  was  killed,  and  was  hastily  used  again. 
The  author,  who  owns  all  the  books  cited  above,  has  also 
others  which  came  from  the  press  in  May  or  June  of  1865, 
whose  main  part  was  taken  over  bodily  from  the  campaign 
biographies  of  1864  and  speaks  of  Lincoln  as  still  living,  while 
the  back  part  is  made  up  of  material  concerning  the  assassi- 


26     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

nation,  the  funeral,  and  the  trial  of  the  conspirators.  These 
called  themselves  "  Complete "  biographies,  but  they  were 
merely  revamped  campaign  booklets  of  1864  with  appended 
matter  and  virtually  no  revision. 

These  works  represent  the  first  stage  of  the  attempt  to 
make  books  out  of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  outline 
of  the  life  itself  is  meager  in  all  of  them,  and  they  are  well 
padded  with  campaign  speeches;  and  the  last  of  them,  with 
full  and  interesting  details  of  the  funeral  services  of  Lincoln, 
the  death  of  Booth,  and  other  matter  lifted  from  the  news 
papers  of  the  period. 

The  second  epoch  began  with  the  publication  of  the  Life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  John  G.  Holland  in  1865.  It  was 
by  all  odds  the  best  of  the  books  that  undertook  within  a  few 
years  after  his  death  to  tell  the  story  of  the  life  of  Lincoln, 
with  some  estimate  of  his  place  in  history.  It  is  also  the  book 
which  began  the  controversy  concerning  Lincoln's  religion. 

The  third  period  was  introduced  by  the  biography  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  by  Ward  Hill  Lamon,  which  was  issued  in 
1872.  It  was  based  upon  manuscripts  that  had  been  collected 
by  William  H.  Herndon,  who  was  supposed  to  have  had  a 
considerable  share  in  the  work  of  its  preparation.  Herndon 
emphatically  denied  writing  any  part  of  it,  and  said  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Horace  White  that  it  was  written  for  Lamon  by 
Chauncey  F.  Black,  son  of  J.  S.  Black,  a  member  of  Buchan 
an's  cabinet  and  a  political  enemy  of  Lincoln  (Newton: 
Lincoln  and  Herndon,  p.  307).  This  valuable  but  unwisely 
written  book,  containing  many  things  offensive  to  good  taste, 
occasioned  much  controversy  for  its  stark  realism  and  what 
seemed  to  many  of  Lincoln's  friends  misrepresentations. 
Some  of  the  intimate  friends  of  Lincoln  are  alleged  to  have 
bought  a  considerable  part  of  the  edition  and  destroyed  the 
books,  but  copies  are  in  the  principal  libraries  and  in  the  best 
private  collections.  4 

Unterrified  by  the  reception  which  had  been  accorded 
Lamon's  work,  William  H.  Herndon,  for  twenty  years  Lin- 


WHY  THE  BIOGRAPHIES  DIFFER      27 

coin's  law  partner,  assisted  by  Jesse  W.  Weik,  published  in 
1889  a  Life  of  Lincoln,  in  three  volumes.1  The  storm  of  de 
nunciation  that  beat  upon  Herndon's  head  was  fierce  and  long. 
The  greater  part  of  the  edition  disappeared.  Libraries  that 
contain  it  keep  it  under  lock  and  key,  and  the  prices  bid  for  it 
at  occasional  book  auctions  contrast  strikingly  with  those  for 
which  it  went  begging  immediately  after  it  was  issued.  Four 
years  later,  assisted  by  Mr.  Horace  White,  Mr.  Herndon  re 
issued  the  book  in  two  volumes,  with  those  passages  elided 
which  had  given  greatest  offense. 

These  two  biographies  mark  the  rise  and  high-water  mark 
of  the  demand  for  "  the  real  Lincoln  " ;  and  nobody  can  deny 
that  they  were  quite  sufficiently  realistic. 

The  next  stage  in  the  Lincoln  biography  was  the  ten- 
volume  Life  of  Lincoln  by  his  former  secretaries,  John  G. 
Nicolay  and  John  Hay.  It  was  issued  in  1890,  and  called  it 
self  "  a  history.'5  It  is  a  history  rather  than  a  biography;  the 
biographical  material  in  it  was  condensed  into  a  single  volume 
by  Mr.  Nicolay  in  1904.  This  work  is  monumental,  and  may 
be  said  to  attempt  the  giving  of  materials  for  the  complete 
Lincoln  rather  than  to  be  in  itself  an  effort  within  the  proper 
limits  of  biography. 

The  two-volume  biography  by  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.,  issued 
in  1893,  was  the  first  constructive  piece  of  work  in  this  field 
after  the  Nicolay  and  Hay  material  had  become  available; 
and  it  remains  in  some  respects  the  best  short  Life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln;  though  the  author's  New  England  viewpoint  mili 
tates  against  his  correct  appraisal  of  many  features  of  the  life 
of  Lincoln. 

The  next  period  may  be  said  to  be  the  period  of  the 
magazine  Lincoln,  and  to  be  represented  at  its  best  by  the 
work  of  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  which  first  appeared  in  McClure*s 
Magazine,  beginning  in  1895,  and  was  subsequently  issued  in 
book  form  in  several  editions  beginning  in  1900.  This  was 
a  pictorial  biography,  with  much  new  illustrative  and  docu 
mentary  material,  and  is  of  permanent  value. 

Since   1900  the  biographies  that  have  been  issued  have 

1  All  the  quotations  in  this  book  from  Herndon's  Lincoln  are  from 
the  first  edition  in  three  volumes. 


28     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

largely  been  devoted  to  specialized  studies,  as  of  Lincoln  as 
a  lawyer,  Lincoln  as  a  political  leader,  Lincoln  as  a  statesman ; 
and  there  have  been  innumerable  books  and  articles  made  up 
of  reminiscences  of  the  men  who  knew  Lincoln  more  or  less 
intimately. 

None  of  the  biographies  before  Holland  attempted  any 
thing  that  could  be  called  a  critical  analysis  of  Lincoln's  char 
acter.  There  is  virtually  nothing  in  the  earliest  Lives  of  Lin 
coln  concerning  his  religion  or  any  other  important  aspect 
of  his  private  and  personal  life.  In  the  nature  of  the  case 
those  books  were  superficial. 

Furthermore,  some  of  the  more  important  biographies  of 
more  recent  years  have  made  no  attempt  at  systematic  char 
acter  study.  While  there  is  something  about  Lincoln's  re 
ligion  in  almost  every  one  of  them,  that  topic  has  been  quite 
incidental  and  subordinate  to  the  main  purpose  of  most  of 
the  larger  books.  The  authors  have  been  content  to  take 
for  the  most  part  the  ready- formed  judgment  of  those  whose 
views  most  nearly  accorded  with  their  own. 

The  field  of  inquiry  concerning  Lincoln's  religion  is  both 
more  narrow  and  broader  than  it  would  at  first  appear.  Many 
even  of  the  more  important  biographical  works  about  Lincoln 
yield  nothing  of  any  real  value,  so  far  as  this  topic  is  con 
cerned.  On  the  other  hand,  the  subject  has  been  exploited 
in  magazine  articles,  newspaper  contributions,  lectures  and  ad 
dresses  almost  innumerable  and  by  no  mean  consistent. 

The  task,  then,  is  more  and  other  than  that  of  making  a 
scrapbook  of  what  different  authorities  have  said  about 
Abraham  Lincoln's  religion.  A  vast  amount  has  been  said  by 
people  who  had  no  personal  knowledge  of  the  subject  they 
were  discussing  and  no  adequate  power  of  historical  analysis. 
The  volume  of  really  first-hand  evidence  is  not  so  vast  as  at 
first  it  appears;  and  while  it  cannot  all  be  reconciled  nor  its 
direct  contradictions  eliminated,  it  is  not  hopelessly  beyond 
the  limits  of  constructive  probability.  It  is  possible  to  de 
termine  some  facts  about  the  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
with  reasonable  certainty  and  to  interpret  others  in  the  light 
of  their  probable  bearing  upon  the  subject  as  a  whole. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD 

WE  have  read  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  to  little  effect 
if  we  have  not  learned  that  the  development  of  an  individual 
or  a  nation  is  profoundly  influenced  by  environment.  The 
biographers  of  Lincoln  would  appear  to  have  kept  this  fact 
carefully  in  mind,  for  they  have  been  at  great  pains  to  give  to 
us  detailed  descriptions  of  the  houses  in  which  Lincoln  lived 
and  the  neighborhoods  where  from  time  to  time  he  resided. 
Although  the  camera  and  the  descriptive  power  of  the  biog 
raphers  have  done  much  for  us,  they  leave  something  to  be 
desired  in  the  way  of  sketching  a  background  from  which  the 
Abraham  Lincoln  of  the  successive  periods  emerged  into  condi 
tions  of  life  and  thought  that  were  more  or  less  religious. 
For  the  purpose  of  this  present  study  the  life  of  Lincoln 
divides  itself  into  four  parts. 

The  first  is  the  period  of  his  boyhood,  from  his  birth  in 
Kentucky  until  his  coming  of  age  and  the  removal  of  his 
family  from  Indiana  into  Illinois. 

The  second  is  the  period  of  his  early  manhood,  from  the 
time  he  left  his  father's  home  until  he  took  up  his  residence 
in  Springfield. 

The  third  is  the  period  of  his  life  in  Springfield,  from  his 
first  arrival  on  April  15,  1837,  until  his  final  departure  on 
February  n,  1861,  for  his  inauguration  as  President. 

The  fourth  is  the  period  covered  by  his  presidency,  from  his 
inauguration,  March  4,  1861,  until  his  death,  April  15,  1865. 

Before  considering  at  length  the  testimony  of  the  people 
who  knew  him,  except  as  that  testimony  relates  to  these  particu 
lar  epochs,  we  will  consider  the  life  of  Lincoln  as  it  was  related 
to  the  conditions  in  which  he  lived  in  these  successive  periods. 

The  first  period  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  includes 

29 


30     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  twenty-one  years  from  his  birth  to  his  majority,  and  is 
divided  into  two  parts, — the  first  seven  and  one-half  years  of 
his  life  in  the  backwoods  of  Kentucky,  and  the  following  thir 
teen  years  in  the  wilderness  of  southern  Indiana. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  sixteenth  President  of  the  United  States, 
was  born  near  Hodgenville,  Kentucky,  on  Sunday,  February 
12,  1809.  He  was  the  second  child  of  Thomas  and  Nancy 
Hanks  Lincoln,  who  were  married  near  Beechland,  Washing 
ton  County,  Kentucky,  on  June  12,  1806,  when  Thomas  was 
twenty-eight  and  Nancy  twenty-three.  Nine  days  before  the 
birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  the  territory  of  Illinois  was  organ 
ized  by  Act  of  Congress;  the  boy  and  the  future  State  were 
twin-born.  For  four  years  the  family  lived  on  the  Rock 
Spring  farm,  three  miles  from  Hodgenville,  in  Hardin,  now 
Larue  County,  Kentucky.  When  he  was  four  years  old  his 
parents  moved  to  a  better  farm  on  Knob  Creek.  Here  he 
spent  nearly  four  years  more,  and  he  and  his  sister,  Sarah, 
began  going  to  school.  His  first  teacher  was  Zachariah  Riney ; 
his  second,  Caleb  Hazel. 

In  the  autumn  of  1816,  Thomas  Lincoln  loaded  his  house 
hold  goods  upon  a  small  flatboat  of  his  own  construction  and 
floated  down  Knob  Creek,  Salt  River,  and  the  Ohio,  and 
landed  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  Ohio  River.  He  thence 
returned  and  brought  his  family,  who  traveled  on  horseback. 
The  distance  to  where  the  goods  had  been  left  was  only  about 
fifty  miles  in  a  straight  line  from  the  old  home  'in  Kentucky, 
but  was  probably  a  hundred  miles  by  the  roads  on  which  they 
traveled.  Thomas  doubtless  rode  one  horse  with  a  child  behind 
him,  and  Nancy  rode  the  other,  also  carrying  a  child  behind 
her  saddle. 

When  the  family  arrived  at  the  point  where  the  goods  had 
been  left,  a  wagon  was  hired,  and  Thomas  Lincoln,  with  his 
wife,  his  two  children,  and  all  his  worldly  possessions,  moved 
sixteen  miles  into  the  wilderness  to  a  place  which  he  had 
already  selected,  and  there  made  his  home.  That  winter  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  following  year  were  spent  in  a  "  half- 
faced  camp  "  from  which  the  family  moved  in  the  following 
autumn  to  a  log  cabin,  erected  by  Thomas  Lincoln.  For  more 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  31 

than  a  year  he  was  a  squatter  on  this  farm,  but  subsequently 
entered  it  and  secured  title  from  the  government.  Here 
Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  died,  October  5,  1818,  when  Abraham 
was  less  than  ten  years  old.  A  year  later  Thomas  Lincoln 
returned  to  Kentucky  and  married  Sally  Bush  Johnson,  a 
widow,  with  three  children.  She  brought  with  her  better  fur 
niture  than  the  cabin  afforded,  and  also  brought  a  higher  type 
of  culture  than  Thomas  Lincoln  had  known.  She  taught  her 
husband  so  that  he  was  able  with  some  difficulty  to  read  the 
Bible  and  to  sign  his  own  name.  On  this  farm  in  the  back 
woods  in  the  Pigeon  Creek  settlement,  with  eight  or  ten 
families  as  neighbors,  and  with  the  primitive  village  of 
Gentry ville  a  mile  and  a  half  distant,  Abraham  Lincoln  grew 
to  manhood.  Excepting  for  a  brief  experience  as  a  ferryman 
on  the  Ohio  River  and  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  which  he  made 
upon  a  flatboat,  his  horizon  was  bounded  by  this  environment 
from  the  time  he  was  eight  until  he  was  twenty-one. 

The  cabin  in  which  the  Lincoln  family  lived  was  a  fairly 
comfortable  house.  It  was  eighteen  feet  square  and  the  logs 
were  hewn.  It  was  high  enough  to  admit  a  loft,  where  Abe 
slept,  ascending  to  it  by  wooden  pins  driven  into  the  logs. 
The  furniture,  excepting  that  brought  by  Sally  Bush,  was  very 
primitive  and  made  by  Thomas  Lincoln.  Three-legged  stools 
answered  for  chairs,  and  the  bedsteads  had  only  one  leg  each, 
the  walls  supporting  the  other  three  corners. 

Of  the  educational  advantages,  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  in  1860: 

"  It  was  a  wild  region,  with  many  bears  and  other  wild 
animals  still  in  the  woods.  There  I  grew  up.  There  were 
some  schools  so-called,  but  no  qualification  was  ever  required 
of  a  teacher  beyond  readin',  writin',  and  cipherin'  to  the  Rule 
of  Three.  If  a  straggler  supposed  to  understand  Latin  hap 
pened  to  sojourn  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was  looked  upon  as 
a  wizard.  There  was  absolutely  nothing  to  excite  ambition 
for  education." — NICOLAY,  p.  10. 

Here  he  attended  school  for  three  brief  periods.  The  first 
school  was  taught  by  Azel  W.  Dorsey,  when  Abraham  was  ten 
years  old;  the  next  by  Andrew  Crawford,  when  he  was  four- 


32     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

teen;  and  the  third  by  a  teacher  named  Swaney,  whose  first 
name  Mr.  Lincoln  was  unable  to  recall  in  later  life.  His 
schooling  was  under  five  different  teachers,  two  in  Kentucky 
and  three  in  Indiana.  It  was  scattered  over  nine  years  and 
embraced  altogether  less  than  twelve  months  of  aggregate 
attendance. 

In  Kentucky  it  is  probable  that  his  only  textbook  was 
Webster's  Elementary  Speller.  It  was  popularly  known  as  the 
"  Old  Blueback." 

Webster's  Speller  is  a  good  speller  and  more.  Each  section 
of  words  to  be  spelled  is  followed  by  short  sentences  con 
taining  those  words,  and  at  the  end  of  the  book  are  three  illus 
trated  lessons  in  Natural  History — one  on  The  Mastiff,  another 
on  The  Stag,  and  the  third  on  The  Squirrel.  Besides  these  are 
seven  fables,  each  with  its  illustration  and  its  moral  lesson. 
I  used  this  book  in  teaching  school  in  the  backwoods  of  Ken 
tucky,  and  still  have  the  teacher's  copy  which  I  thus  employed. 

The  two  Kentucky  schools  which  Lincoln  attended  were 
undoubtedly  "  blab  "  schools.  The  children  were  required  to 
study  aloud.  Their  audible  repetition  of  their  lessons  was  the 
teacher's  only  .assurance  that  they  were  studying ; 1  and  even 
while  he  was  hearing  a  class  recite  he  would  spend  a  portion 
of  his  time  moving  about  the  room  with  hickory  switch  in 
hand,  administering  frequent  rebuke  to  those  pupils  who  did 
not  study  loud  enough  to  afford  proof  of  their  industry. 

In  Indiana,  Lincoln  came  under  the  influence  of  men  who 
could  cipher  as  far  as  the  Rule  of  Three.  He  also  learned  to 
use  Lindley  Murray's  English  Reader,  which  he  always  be 
lieved,  and  with  much  reason,  to  be  the  most  useful  textbook 
ever  put  into  the  hands  of  an  American  youth  (Herndon,  I, 
37).  He  also  studied  Pike's  Arithmetic.  Grammar  he  did  not 
study  in  school,  but  later  learned  it  under  Mentor  Graham  in 
Illinois. 

1  The  habit  of  studying  aloud,  learned  in  the  "  blab-school,"  re 
mained  with  him.  Lamon  says  he  read  aloud  and  "  couldn't  read  other 
wise."  Whitney  tells  of  his  writing  a  ruling  one  time  when  he  was 
sitting  (illegally)  for  Judge  Davis,  and  he  pronounced  each  word  aloud 
as  he  wrote  it.  This  was  not  his  invariable  custom,  but  it  was  a  common 
one  with  him. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  33 

The  first  of  these  schools  was  only  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  distant  from  his  home;  the  last  was  four  miles,  and  his 
attendance  was  irregular. 

In  the  second  school,  taught  by  Andrew  Crawford,  he 
learned  whatever  he  knew  of  the  usages  of  polite  society;  for 
Crawford  gave  his  pupils  a  kind  of  drill  in  social  usages 
(Herndon,  I,  37). 

In  Swaney's  school  he  probably  learned  that  the  earth  was 
round.  A  classmate,  Katy  Roby,  afterward  Mrs.  Allen 
Gentry,  between  whom  and  Abraham  a  boy-and-girl  attach 
ment  appears  to  have  existed,  and  who  at  the  time  was  fifteen 
and  Abe  seventeen,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  as  they 
were  sitting  together  on  the  bank  of  the  Ohio  River  near 
Gentry's  landing,  wetting  their  bare  feet  in  the  flowing  water 
and  watching  the  sun  go  down,  he  told  her  that  it  was  the  revo 
lution  of  the  earth  which  made  the  moon  and  sun  appear  to 
rise  and  set.  He  exhibited  what  to  her  appeared  a  profound 
knowledge  of  astronomy  (Herndon,  I,  39;  Lamon's  Life, 
p.  70). 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  assume  that  Abraham  knew 
very  much  more  about  astronomy  than  the  little  which  he 
told  to  Katy  Roby;  but  it  is  worth  while  to  note  in  passing 
that  when  Abraham  Lincoln  learned  that  the  earth  was  round, 
he  probably  learned  something  which  his  father  did  not  know 
and  which  would  have  been  admitted  by  no  minister  whom 
Abraham  had  heard  preach  up  to  this  time. 

We  are  ready  now  to  consider  the  character  of  the  preach 
ing  which  Abraham  Lincoln  heard  in  his  boyhood.  Direct 
testimony  is  fragmentary  of  necessity;  but  it  is  of  such  char 
acter  that  we  are  able  without  difficulty  to  make  a  consistent 
mental  picture  of  the  kind  of  religious  service  with  which  he 
was  familiar. 

A  recent  author  has  said  that  Lincoln  never  lived  in  a  com 
munity  having  a  church  building  until  he  went  to  the  legisla 
ture  in  Vandalia  in  1834  (Johnson,  Lincoln  the  Christian,  p. 
31).  This  is  probably  true  if  we  insist  upon  its  meaning  a 
house  of  worship  owned  exclusively  by  one  denomination,  but 
the  same  author  reminds  us  that  there  was  a  log  meeting- 


34     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

house 2  within  three  miles  of  Lincoln's  childhood  home  in 
Kentucky  (p.  22). 
Dr.  Peters  says: 

"  The  prayers  that  Parson  Elkin  said  above  the  mound  of 
Nancy  Hanks  were  the  first  public  prayers  to  which  Abraham 
ever  listened  " — Abraham  Lincoln's  Religion,  p.  24. 

This  is  absurdly  incorrect.  Abraham  Lincoln  almost  cer 
tainly  heard  public  prayers  at  intervals,  probably  from  the  time 
he  was  three  months  old. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  February,  or  his  mother 
probably  would  have  taken  him  to  church  earlier ;  but  by  May 
or  June,  when  there  was  monthly  preaching  at  the  log  meeting- 
house  three  miles  away,  she  mounted  a  horse  and  Thomas 
Lincoln  another,  he  with  Sarah  sitting  before  him  at  the 
saddlebow  and  she  with  Abraham  in  her  arms,  and  they  rode 
to  meeting.  If  they  had  had  but  one  horse  instead  of  two 
they  would  have  gone  just  the  same.  She  would  have  sat 
behind  Thomas  with  Abraham  in  her  arms  and  Thomas  would 
have  had  Sarah  on  the  horse  before  him.  Thomas  Lincoln  was 
too  shiftless  to  have  a  horse-block,  but  Nancy  could  mount 
her  horse  from  any  one  of  the  numerous  stumps  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  home.  She  and  every  other  young  mother  in  the 
neighborhood  knew  how  to  ride  and  carry  a  baby,  and  having 
once  learned  the  art,  the  young  mother  was  not  permitted  to 
forget  it  for  several  years. 

Arrived  at  the  log  meeting-house,  they  hitched  their  horses 
to  swinging  limbs,  where  the  animals  could  fight  flies  without 
breaking  the  bridle-reins.  Nancy  went  inside  immediately  and 
took  her  seat  on  the  left  side  of  the  room;  Thomas  remained 
outside  gossiping  with  his  neighbors  concerning  "  craps  "  and 
politics,  and  maybe  swapping  a  horse  before  the  service  had 
gotten  fairly  under  way.  After  a  while  he  heard  the  preacher 
in  stentorian  tones  lining  and  singing  the  opening  hymn,  the 

2  Hodgenville  was  a  Baptist  settlement  from  its  foundation.  Robert 
Hodgen,  for  whom  the  settlement  was  named,  and  John  Larue,  his 
brother-in-law,  for  whom  the  county  was  named,  were  both  Baptists, 
and  among  the  first  settlers  was  a  Baptist  minister,  Rev.  Benjamin  Lyon. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  35 

thin,  high  voices  of  the  women  joining  him  feebly  at  first  but 
growing  a  little  more  confident  as  the  hymn  proceeded.  Then 
Thomas  and  his  neighbors  straggled  in  and  sat  on  the  right 
side  of  the  house.  The  floor  was  puncheon  and  so  were  the 
seats;  they  were  rudely  split  slabs,  roughly  hewn,  and  the 
second  sitting  from  either  end  had  an  added  element  of  dis 
comfort  in  the  projection  of  the  two  legs  that  had  been  driven 
in  from  the  under  side  and  were  not  sawed  off  flush  with 
the  surface  of  the  slab.  There  were  no  glass  windows.  On 
either  side  of  the  house  one  section  of  a  log  may  have  been 
sawed  out  about  four  feet  from  the  floor;  but  most  of  the  light 
of  the  interior  came  in  through  the  open  door  in  mild  weather, 
or  was  afforded  by  the  fireplace  in  cold  weather. 

On  the  rude  pulpit  lay  the  preacher's  Bible  and  hymn  book, 
if  he  had  a  hymn  book — no  one  else  had  one;  and  beside 
these  were  a  bucket  of  water  and  a  gourd.  There  was  no 
time  in  the  service  when  Thomas  Lincoln  did  not  feel  free 
to  walk  up  to  the  pulpit  and  drink  a  gourd  of  water,  and 
the  same  was  true  of  every  other  member  of  the  congregation, 
the  preacher  included.  As  for  Nancy,  she  spread  her  riding- 
skirt  on  the  seat  under  her  and  when  her  baby  grew  hungry  she 
nursed  him  just  as  the  other  women  nursed  their  babies. 

To  such  congregations  the  author  of  this  present  book 
preached  hundreds  of  times  in  the  woods  of  Kentucky;  and 
there  is  no  essential  feature  of  the  church  services  which  he 
does  not  know. 

In  the  autumn,  just  before  fodder-pulling  time,  there  was 
an  occasional  camp-meeting  or  big  revival,  followed  by  a 
baptizing,  which  brought  multitudes  of  people  from  long  dis 
tances.  They  brought  their  provisions,  or  they  stayed  with 
friends,  one  cabin  proving  elastic  enough  to  accommodate  two 
or  three  households.  Under  these  conditions  the  author  of  this 
book  has  slept  many  nights  in  houses  of  one  room,  with  as 
many  beds  as  the  room  could  well  contain,  inhabited  not  only 
by  the  family  but  by  visitors  of  both  sexes;  and  in  all  that 
experience  he  is  unable  to  recall  any  incident  that  was  im 
modest. 

When  the  converts  of  the  camp-meeting  or  revival  were 


36     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

baptized,  they  were  led  into  the  water  with  due  solemnity; 
but  as  each  one  came  to  the  surface  he  or  she  was  likely  to 
break  forth  into  shouting,  a  proceeding  which,  as  the  author 
can  testify,  was  sometimes  embarrassing,  if  not  indeed 
perilous,*  to  the  officiating  clergyman. 

Herndon  tells  us  of  the  fondness  of  the  Hanks  girls  for 
camp-meeting  and  describes  one  in  which  Nancy  appears  to 
have  participated  a  little  time  before  her  marriage  (I,  14). 
We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  that  was  her  last  camp- 
meeting. 

Thomas  Lincoln  is  alleged  by  Herndon  to  have  been  a  Free 
will  Baptist  in  Kentucky,  a  Presbyterian  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life  in  Indiana,  and  finally  a  Disciple  (I,  n).  He  does 
not  state  where  he  obtained  his  information,  but  it  is  almost 
certain  that  he  got  it  from  Sally  Bush  Lincoln  on  the  occasion 
of  his  visit  to  her  in  1865 ;  as  she  is  the  accredited  source  of 
most  of  the  information  of  this  character. 

I  am  more  than  tempted  to  believe  that  either  she  or 
Herndon  was  incorrect  in  speaking  of  Thomas  Lincoln's 
earliest  affiliation  as  a  Free-will  Baptist.  There  were  more 
kinds  of  Baptists  in  heaven  and  on  earth  than  were  understood 
in  her  philosophy;  and  I  question  whether  the  Free-will  Bap 
tists,  who  originated  in  New  England,  had  by  this  time  pene 
trated  to  so  remote  a  section  of  Kentucky.  What  she  prob 
ably  told  Herndon  was  that  he  was  not  of  the  most  reactionary 
kind — the  so-called  "  Hardshell  "  or  anti-missionary  Baptists. 
Of  them  we  shall  have  something  to  say  later.  The  Scripps 
biography,  read  and  approved  by  Lincoln,  said  simply  that  his 
parents  were  consistent  members  of  the  Baptist  Church. 
Nicolay  and  Hay  do  not  record  the  membership  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  one  is  more  than 
tempted  to  question  the  accuracy  of  Herndon  at  this  point. 
Presbyterianism  had  at  that  date  very  little  part  in  the  shaping 

3  Baptisms  of  this  noisy  character  were  familiar  to  Lincoln  in  his 
boyhood  and  certainly  as  late  as  the  period  of  his  residence  in  New 
Salem.  Henry  Onstott,  at  whose  tavern  Lincoln  boarded,  tells  of  such 
baptisms  performed  by  Rev.  Abraham  Bale,  including  one  at  which  the 
husband  of  the  lady  who  was  being  baptized  called  out  to  the  preacher 
to  hold  her,  as  he  valued  her  more  highly  than  the  best  cow  and  calf  in 
the  county  (Lincoln  and  Salem,  p.  122). 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  37 

of  the  life  of  the  backwoods  of  Illinois  and  Indiana,  as  we 
shall  see  when  we  come  to  the  life  of  Lincoln  in  Illinois. 
Nicolay  and  Hay  tell  us  that  "  Thomas  Lincoln  joined  the 
Baptist  church  at  Little  Pigeon  in  1823.  His  oldest  child, 
Sarah,  followed  his  example  three  years  later.  They  were 
known  as  consistent  and  active  members  of  that  communion  " 
(Nicolay  and  Hay,  I,  32-33).  If  Sarah  joined  the  Baptist 
church  in  1826,  and  the  family  was  remembered  as  active  in 
that  church,  the  relation  of  Thomas  Lincoln  with  the  Presby 
terians  in  Indiana  must  have  been  brief,  for  he  left  that  State 
in  1830.  We  are  assured  that  he  observed  religious  customs 
in  his  home  and  asked  a  blessing  at  the  table;  for  one  day, 
when  the  meal  consisted  only  of  potatoes,  Abraham  said  to 
his  father,  that  he  regarded  those  as  "  mighty  poor  blessings  " 
(Herndon,  I,  24).  While  Thomas  Lincoln  was  not  an  ener 
getic  man,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  consistency  of  his 
religion,  in  which  he  was  certainly  aided  by  Sally  Bush  Lin 
coln.  That  he  died  in  the  fellowship  either  of  the  Disciples  or 
of  the  New  Lights  is  probably  correct;  but  the  Presbyterian 
membership  in  Indiana,  while  not  impossible,  appears  more 
likely  to  have  been  a  mistake  in  Herndon's  interpretation  of 
Mrs.  Lincoln's  narrative. 

Herndon's  statement  concerning  Thomas  Lincoln's  religion 
is  as  follows : 

"  In  his  religious  belief  he  first  affiliated  with  the  Free-will 
Baptists.  After  his  removal  to  Indiana  he  changed  his  adher 
ence  to  the  Presbyterians — or  Predestinarians,  as  they  were 
then  called — and  later  united  with  the  Christian — vulgarly 
called  Campbellite — Church,  in  which  latter  faith  he  is  sup 
posed  to  have  died  "  (I,  11-12). 

I  am  satisfied  that  Herndon  is  mistaken  in  two  if  not  in 
all  three  of  these  assertions.  I  am  confident  that  Predesti- 
narian  was  not  a  popular  or  commonly  understood  name  for 
Presbyterians,  but  it  was  a  name  for  one  type  of  Baptists. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  probably  told  Herndon  that  her  husband  joined 
in  Indiana,  not  the  hardshell,  or  most  reactionary  kind  of 
Baptists,  but  the  P'redestinarians.  Knowing  that  predestina- 


38     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tion  was  a  doctrine  of  Presbyterianism,  Mr.  Herndon  assumed 
that  that  was  what  the  name  implied.  It  implied  nothing  of 
the  sort.  Thomas  Lincoln  probably  belonged  to  the  old  Two- 
Seed-in-the-Spirit  Predestinarian  Baptists,  not  quite  as  hard 
in  their  shell  as  the  Hardshells,  but  very  different  from  the 
Free-will  Baptists  or  the  Presbyterians,  the  kind  whose 
preachers  were  accustomed  to  shout — "  I'd  rather  have  a  hard 
shell  than  no  shell  at  all !  " 

Dennis  Hanks4  was  far  from  being  impeccable  authority 
on  matters  where  his  imagination  permitted  him  to  enlarge, 
but  he  seldom  forgot  anything,  and  still  less  frequently  made 
it  smaller  than  it  really  was.  If  Thomas  Lincoln  had  ever 
sustained  any  relation  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  he  would 
surely  have  told  it,  or  some  member  of  his  family,  jealous  as 
those  members  were  for  the  reputation  of  "  Grandfather  Lin 
coln/'  would  not  have  failed  to  report  it.  In  his  interview  with 
Mrs.  Eleanor  Atkinson,  in  which  his  family  participated, 
Dennis  evinced  a  definite  attempt  to  set  forth  Thomas  Lincoln 
in  as  favorable  a  light  as  possible,  and  there  was  a  high  and 
deserved  tribute  to  his  "  Aunt  Sairy,"  Thomas  Lincoln's  second 
wife. 

"  Aunt  Sairy  sartainly  did  have  faculty.  I  reckon  we  was 
all  purty  ragged  and  dirty  when  she  got  there.  The  fust  thing 
she  did  was  to  tell  me  to  tote  one  of  Tom's  carpenter  benches 
to  a  place  outside  the  door,  near  the  hoss  trough.  Then  she 
had  me  an'  Abe  an'  John  Johnson,  her  boy,  fill  the  trough  with 
spring  water.  She  put  out  a  gourd  full  of  soft  soap,  and 
another  one  to  dip  water  with,  an'  told  us  boys  to  wash  up  fur 
dinner.  You  just  naturally  had  to  be  somebody  when  Aunt 
Sairy  was  around.  She  had  Tom  build  her  a  loom,  an'  when 
she  heerd  o'  some  lime  burners  bein'  round  Gentryville,  Tom 
had  to  mosey  over  an'  git  some  lime  an'  whitewash  the  cabin. 
An'  he  made  her  an  ash  hopper  fur  lye,  an'  a  chicken-house 
nothin'  could  git  into.  Then — te-he-he-he ! — she  set  some  kind 
of  a  dead- fall  trap  fur  him,  an'  got  Tom  to  jine  the  Baptist 
Church.  Cracky,  but  Aunt  Sally  was  some  punkins !  " — 
American  Magazine,  February,  1908,  p.  364. 

4  While  the  statements  of  Dennis  Hanks  are  often  colored  by  his 
imagination,  he  is,  after  all,  our  best  witness  concerning  Lincoln's  boyhood. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  39 

I  am  of  opinion  that  what  Mrs.  Sarah  Bush  Lincoln  told 
Herndon  was  that  her  husband  sometimes  attended  the  Pres 
byterian  service,  and  that  the  church  he  joined  was  the  Baptist, 
but  not  the  Hardshell  Baptist.  But  evidence  is  wholly  lacking 
that  he  had  any  connection  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  or 
with  the  Free-will  Baptists,  of  which  latter  sect  he  probably 
never  heard. 

The  church  at  Farmington  of  which  Thomas  Lincoln  be 
came  a  member  is  not  now  in  existence.  I  have  endeavored 
through  investigation  in  Farmington,  and  by  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  to  ascertain  its  denomination. 
It  called  itself  "  Christian,"  and  Herndon  did  not  doubt  that 
that  name  indicated  that  it  was  a  church  of  the  denomination 
sometimes  called  "  Campbellite."  But  that  is  not  certain. 
Other  denominations  claim  that  as  their  distinctive  name,  and 
one  of  them  was  at  that  time  active  in  that  part  of  Illinois. 
My  inquiries  have  brought  me  no  certain  knowledge  on  this 
point;  but  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  is  of  opinion  that  the  denomi 
nation  was  that  known  as  "  New  Light."  It  is  possible  that 
Herndon  was  in  error  in  every  one  of  his  three  affirmations 
concerning  the  religion  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  and  that  the  Presi 
dent's  father  was  never  a  Free-will  Baptist,  never  a  Presby 
terian,  and  never  a  Disciple  or  Campbellite.  I  have  endeav 
ored  to  learn  whether  his  change  from  the  Baptist  to  the 
"  Christian  "  church  was  a  matter  of  conviction  or  conveni 
ence,  but  on  this  I  have  found  nothing  except  a  statement  from 
the  minister  who  buried  him,  in  which  it  would  appear  that  his 
change  of  polity  was  a  matter  of  conviction.  This  minister 
spoke  very  highly  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  whom  he  had  known 
well  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life. 

There  has  been  undue  attempt  to  credit  the  pious  boy 
Abraham  with  the  religious  service  conducted  over  the  grave 
of  his  mother  by  Rev.  David  Elkin5  some  months  after  her 

5  Some  writers  have  spoken  of  Mr.  Elkin  as  a  Methodist  circuit 
rider.  Mrs.  Lucinda  Boyd,  in  a  book  which  might  better  not  have  been 
published  and  which  I  will  not  name,  but  which  is  correct  in  some  local 
matters,  speaks  of  Rev.  Robert  Elkin,  the  minister  who  preached  the 
funeral  sermon  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  as  belonging  to  the  "  Traveling  Baptist 
Church."  She  says :  "  His  grave  is  in  the  open  field,  and  soon  the  traces 


40    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

demise.  There  is  no  good  authority  for  this  legend.  Herndon 
probably  tells  the  truth  about  it : 

"  Within  a  few  months,  and  before  the  close  of  the  winter, 
David  Elkin,  an  itinerant  preacher  whom  Mrs.  Lincoln  had 
known  in  Kentucky,  happened  into  the  settlement,  and  in  re 
sponse  to  the  invitation  from  the  family  and  friends,  delivered 
a  funeral  sermon  over  her  grave.  No  one  is  able  now  to 
remember  the  language  of  Parson  Elkin's  discourse,  but  it  is 
recalled  that  he  commemorated  the  virtues  and  good  phases 
of  character,  and  passed  in  silence  the  few  shortcomings  and 
frailties  of  the  poor  woman  sleeping  under  the  winter's  snow." 
— HERNDON,  I,  28. 

This  does  not  compel  us  to  believe  that  there  had  been  no 
preacher  in  the  Pigeon  Creek  settlement  since  the  death  of 
Nancy  Hanks.6  It  was  customary  among  these  Kentucky-bred 
people  to  hold  the  funeral  service  some  weeks  or  months  after 
the  burial.  The  author  of  this  volume  has  attended  many  such 
services. 

The  reasons  require  some  explanation.  The  dead  were 
commonly  buried  on  the  day  following  death.  There  were,  of 
course,  no  facilities  for  embalming  or  preserving  the  corpse  for 
any  great  length  of  time.  Preachers  were  nearly  all  farmers; 
and  the  particular  minister  with  whose  church  the  family  was 

of  it  will  be  lost."  Apparently  this  grave  was  in  Clark  County,  Ken 
tucky.  I  think,  however,  that  she  is  in  error  as  to  the  name  Robert.  It 
was  David. 

6  The  latest  writer  to  lend  to  the  incident  of  Nancy  Lincoln's  funeral 
the  aid  of  a  vivid  imagination  and  a  versatile  pen  is  Rose  Strunsky. 
Discarding  the  theory  that  Abraham  wrote  his  first  letter  to  invite  a  min 
ister  to  come  from  Kentucky  to  preach  his  mother's  funeral,  she  sends 
him  on  foot  to  a  nearer  settlement : 

"  The  boy  Abraham  had  his  standards  of  life.  There  were  things  of 
too  much  meaning  to  let  pass  without  some  gesture.  And  the  uncere 
monious  burial  in  the  forest  haunted  him.  When  he  heard  that  a  wan 
dering  preacher  had  reached  the  neighborhood,  he  tramped  many  miles 
in  the  snow  to  bring  him  to  the  spot  where  the  dead  body  lay,  so  that 
a  funeral  sermon  might  be  delivered  over  the  now  white  grave"  (Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  p.  6). 

There  was  nothing  unusual  about  the  burial.  Nor  was  there  anything 
unusual  about  the  deferred  funeral.  These  writers  simply  do  not  know 
the  conditions  of  life  in  which  the  boy  Lincoln  lived. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  41 

affiliated  might  be  living  at  a  considerable  distance  and  be  at 
that  time  at  some  distant  place  upon  his  wide  circuit.  No 
minister  expected  to  preach  every  Sunday  in  any  one  place. 
A  monthly  appointment  was  the  maximum  attempted;  and 
the  more  remote  settlements  were  not  reached  statedly  by  any 
one  preacher  oftener  than  once  in  three  months.  There  were 
occasional  services,  however,  by  other  ministers  riding  through 
the  country  and  preaching  wherever  they  stayed  overnight. 
It  was  the  author's  custom  when  coming  unexpectedly  into  a. 
valley  to  spread  word  up  and  down  the  creek  that  there  would 
be  preaching  that  night  in  the  schoolhouse  or  in  the  home 
where  he  was  entertained.  The  impromptu  announcement 
never  failed  to  bring  a  congregation. 

What  took  David  Elkin  into  Indiana  we  do  not  know. 
He  may  have  been  looking  for  a  better  farm  than  he  had  in 
Kentucky,  where  he  could  dig  out  a  living  between  his  preach 
ing  appointments.  He  may  have  been  burdened  for  the  souls 
of  certain  families  formerly  under  his  care  and  now  gone  out 
like  the  Lincolns  into  a  howling  wilderness.  The  late  summer 
and  early  autumn  between  the  end  of  corn-plowing  and  the 
beginning  of  fodder-pulling  afforded  such  a  minister  oppor 
tunity  to  throw  his  saddlebags  over  his  horse  and  start  on  a 
longer  circuit  than  usual ;  and  the  winter  gave  him  still  another 
opportunity  for  long  absence.  He  took  no  money  and  he  col 
lected  none,  or  next  to  none,  but  he  had  free  welcome  every 
where  with  pork  and  corn  pone  for  supper  and  fried  chicken 
for  breakfast.  Many  a  time  the  author  of  this  volume  has 
ridden  up  to  a  house  just  before  suppertime,  has  partaken  with 
the  family  of  its  customary  cornbread  and  bacon  or  ham,  and 
after  preaching  and  a  good  night's  rest  has  been  wakened  in 
the  morning  before  the  rising  of  the  sun  by  a  muffled  squawk 
and  flutter  as  one  or  more  chickens  were  pulled  down  out  of 
the  trees.  After  this  fashion  did  the  people  of  the  backwoods 
welcome  the  messengers  of  the  Lord. 

Not  necessarily  on  his  next  appearance  in  a  settlement  is 
the  preacher  requested  to  conduct  the  funeral  service  of  persons 
deceased  since  his  last  visit.  The  matter  is  arranged  with  more 
of  deliberation.  A  date  is  set  some  time  ahead  and  word  is 


42     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

sent  to  distant  friends.7  After  a  time  of  general  sickness  such 
as  had  visited  Pigeon  Creek  in  the  epidemic  of  the  "  milk 
sick,"  Parson  Elkin  may  have  had  several  funerals  to  preach 
in  the  same  cemetery  or  at  the  schoolhouse  nearest  at  hand.  I 
have  known  a  half-dozen  funerals  to  be  included  in  one  sermon 
with  full  biographical  particulars  of  each  decedent  and  detailed 
descriptions  of  all  the  deathbed  scenes,  together  with  rap 
turous  forecasts  of  the  future  bliss  of  the  good  people  who 
were  dead  and  abundant  warnings  of  the  flaming  hell  that 
awaited  their  impenitent  neighbors.  Even  those  people  who 
had  not  been  noted  for  their  piety  during  life  were  almost 
invariably  slipped  into  heaven  through  a  deathbed  repentance 
or  by  grace  of  the  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God.  It  is  the 
business  of  all  preachers  to  be  very  stern  with  the  living  and 
very  charitable  toward  the  dead.8 

I  must  add  a  further  word  about  the  custom  of  deferred 
funerals.  Although  the  burial  was  conducted  without  religious 
service,  it  was  not  permitted  to  be  celebrated  in  neglect.  The 
news  that  a  man  was  dying  would  bring  the  sympathetic  neigh 
bors  from  miles  around,  and  horses  would  be  tied  up  the  creek 

7  While  this  manuscript  was  in  process  of  writing,  Professor  Ray 
mond,  of  Berea  College,  Kentucky,  enumerating  his  summer  engagements 
for  the  season  of  1919,  informed  me  of  a  funeral  he  was  engaged  to 
preach  in  August  of  a  boy  who  died  ten  years  ago.  The  boy's  com 
panions  have  by  this  time  grown  to  manhood,  but  the  service  will  be 
held:  and  before  this  book  is  published  doubtless  will  have  been  held 
according  to  immemorial  custom  in  that  region.  This  is  not  because 
there  has  been  no  preacher  in  its  vicinity  within  ten  years;  nor  is  there 
any  reason  to  suppose  that  the  delay  in  the  case  of  Lincoln's  mother 
was  due  to  the  utter  absence  of  ministers.  They  were  not  abundant,  cer 
tainly;  but  there  is  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  in  the  interval 
between  the  death  and  funeral  of  Nancy  Hanks  no  preacher  had  been 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Pigeon  Creek. 

8 1  have  often  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  charity  of  primitive 
preachers  for  dead  people,  and  their  ingenuity  in  inventing  possible 
opportunities  for  repentance  where  no  outward  sign  was  given  or  appar 
ently  possible.  There  was  something  impressive  in  their  manner  of 
doing  it,  as  well  as  an  exhibition  of  fine  tenderness  for  the  feelings  of 
friends  and  of  generosity  toward  the  dead. 

"Between  the  saddle  and  the  ground, 
He  pardon  sought  and  pardon  found " 

is  a  very  precious  article  of  faith  in  the  creed  of  men  who  have  to  preach 
a  stern  doctrine  to  the  living,  with  warning  of  a  hell  that  yawns  for  all 
impenitent  sinners. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  43 

and  down  while  people  waited  in  friendly  sorrow  and  con 
versed  in  hushed  voices  in  the  presence  of  the  solemn  dignity 
of  death.  That  night  a  group  of  neighbors  would  "  sit  up  " 
with  the  dead,  and  keep  the  family  awake  with  frequent  and 
lugubrious  song. 

Next  day  the  grave  must  be  dug ;  and  that  required  a  con 
siderable  part  of  the  male  population  of  the  settlement.  If 
only  two  or  three  men  came  in  the  morning  they  would  sit 
and  wait  for  others  and  go  home  for  the  dinner  and  come  back. 
It  thus  has  happened  more  than  once  in  my  experience  that 
we  have  brought  the  body  to  the  burial  and  have  had  to  wait 
an  hour  or  more  in  sun  or  wind  for  the  finishing  of  the 
digging  of  the  grave. 

I  remember  well  an  instance  in  which  death  occurred  in 
the  family  of  one  of  the  county  officials.  His  wife  died  sud 
denly,  and  under  sad  conditions.  I  mounted  my  horse  and 
rode  four  or  five  miles  to  his  home.  I  hitched  my  horse  to 
the  low-swinging  limb  of  a  beech  tree  and  threaded  my  way 
among  other  horses  into  the  yard,  which  was  filled  with  men, 
and  up  to  the  porch,  which  was  crowded  with  women.  Pass 
ing  inside,  I  spoke  my  word  of  sympathy  to  the  grief -stricken 
husband  and  his  children.  Then  I  passed  out  into  the  yard 
and  moved  from  group  to  group  among  the  men.  Presently 
a  neighbor  of  the  sorrowing  husband  approached  me  and  asked 
me  to  step  aside  with  him  for  private  converse.  This  was 
strictly  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  country,  and  I 
walked  with  him  behind  the  corn-crib.  He  said  to  me :  "  Mr. 
McCune  " — naming  the  bereaved  husband — "  wants  to  know 
whether  you  have  come  here  as  a  preacher  or  as  a  neighbor?  " 
I  answered,  "  Tell  him  that  I  have  come  as  a  neighbor." 
With  this  word  he  returned  to  the  house.  Up  on  the  hillside 
I  could  see  the  leisurely  movements  of  the  grave-diggers. 
From  the  shed  behind  the  house  came  the  rhythmic  tap  of 
the  hammer  driving  in  the  tacks  that  fastened  the  white  glazed 
muslin  lining  of  the  home-made  coffin.  We  had  some  little 
time  still  to  wait  before  either  the  grave  or  the  coffin  would  be 
finished.  Presently  the  neighbor  returned  to  where  I  waited 
behind  the  corn-crib  and  brought  with  him  Mr.  McCune.  The 


44     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

latter  shook  my  hand  warmly  and  said,  in  substance :  "  I 
appreciate  your  coming  and  the  respect  which  you  thus  show 
for  me  and  for  my  dead  wife.  I  was  glad  to  see  you  come 
when  you  entered  the  house,  but  was  a  little  embarrassed  be 
cause  I  knew  it  to  be  your  custom  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon 
at  the  time  of  the  burial.  I  have  no  objection  to  that  custom ; 
and  while  we  are  Baptists  [he  pronounced  it  Babtist,  and  so 
I  have  no  doubt  did  Thomas  Lincoln] ,  there  is  no  man  whom 
I  would  rather  have  preach  my  wife's  sermon  than  you.  We 
shall  undoubtedly  have  a  Baptist  preacher  when  the  time  for 
the  funeral  comes,  but  I  hope  you  also  will  be  present  and 
participate  in  the  service.  But  it  is  not  our  custom  to  hold 
the  service  at  the  time  of  the  burial,  and  we  have  distant 
friends  who  should  be  notified.  Moreover,  there  is  another 
consideration.  I  have  been  twice  married,  and  I  never  yet 
have  got  round  to  it  to  have  my  first  wife's  funeral  preached. 
It  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be  a  discourtesy  to  my  first  wife's 
memory  to  have  my  second  wife's  sermon  preached  before  the 
first.  What  I  now  plan  to  do  is  to  have  the  two  funerals  at 
once,  and  I  hope  you  will  be  present  and  participate." 

I  need  only  add  that  before  I  departed  from  that  region 
he  was  comfortably  married  to  his  third  wife,  not  having 
gotten  round  to  it  to  have  the  funeral  sermon  of  either  of  his 
first  two  wives.  I  am  unable  to  say  whether  when  he  finally 
got  round  to  it  there  was  any  increase  in  the  number.  It  never 
was  my  fortune  to  conduct  the  joint  funeral  of  two  wives  of 
the  same  man  at  the  same  time;  but  I  have  more  than  once 
been  present  where  a  second  wife  was  prominent  among  the 
mourners ;  and  I  sometimes  believed  her  to  be  sincerely  sorry 
that  the  first  wife  was  dead. 

It  is  not  easy  for  people  who  have  not  lived  amid  these 
conditions  and  at  the  same  time  to  have  known  other  condi 
tions  to  estimate  aright  the  religious  life  of  a  backwoods  com 
munity.  Morse,  whose  biography  of  Lincoln  is  to  be  rated 
high,  is  completely  unable  to  view  this  situation  from  other 
than  his  New  England  standpoint.  He  says : 

"  The  family  was  imbued  with  a  peculiar,  intense,  but 
unenlightened  form  of  Christianity,  mingled  with  curious 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  45 

superstition,  prevalent  in  the  backwoods,  and  begotten  by  the 
influence  of  the  vast  wilderness  upon  illiterate  men  of  a  rude 
native  force.  It  interests  scholars  to  trace  the  evolution  of 
religious  faiths,  but  it  might  not  be  less  suggestive  to  study 
the  retrogression  of  religion  into  superstition.  Thomas  Lin 
coln  was  as  restless  in  matters  of  creed  as  of  residence,  and 
made  various  changes  in  both  during  his  life.  These  were, 
however,  changes  without  improvement,  and,  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  his  son  Abraham  might  have  grown  up  to  be  what 
he  himself  was  contented  to  remain  "  (I,  10). 

This  criticism  is  partly  just,  but  not  wholly  so.  There 
was  superstition  enough  in  the  backwoods  religion,  and  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  never  wholly  divested  himself  of  it;  but  it 
was  not  all  superstition.  There  was  a  very  real  religion  on 
Pigeon  Creek. 

In  like  manner,  also,  it  is  difficult  for  Lincoln's  biogra 
phers  to  strike  an  even  balance  between  adoring  idealization 
of  log-cabin  life  and  horrified  exaggeration  of  its  squalor. 
Here  again  Morse  is  a  classic  example  of  the  attempt  to  be  so 
honest  about  Lincoln's  poverty  as  to  miss  some  part  of  the 
truth  about  it. 

The  Lincoln  family  was  poor,  even  as  poverty  was  esti 
mated  in  the  backwoods.  Lincoln  himself  was  painfully  im 
pressed  with  the  memory  of  it,  and  Herndon  and  Lamon,  who 
understood  it  better  than  most  of  his  biographers,  felt  both 
for  themselves  and  for  Lincoln  the  pathos  of  his  descent  from 
"  the  poor  whites  " ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  Lincoln 
felt  this  seriously  at  the  time.  His  melancholy  came  later, 
and  was  not  the  direct  heritage  of  his  childhood  poverty. 
Life  had  its  joys  for  families  such  as  his.  Poverty  was 
accepted  as  in  some  sort  the  common  lot,  and  also  as  a 
temporary  condition  out  of  which  everybody  expected  some 
time  to  emerge.  Meantime  the  boy  Abraham  Lincoln  had  not 
only  the  joy  oT  going  to  mill  and  to  meeting,  but  also  the 
privilege  of  an  occasional  frolic.  We  know  of  one  or  two 
boisterous  weddings  where  he  behaved  himself  none  too  well. 
Besides  these  there  were  other  unrecorded  social  events  on 
Pigeon  Creek  where  the  platter  rolled  merrily  and  he  had  to 


46     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

untangle  his  long  legs  from  under  the  bench  and  move  quickly 
when  his  number  was  called  or  pay  a  forfeit  and  redeem  it. 
He  played  "  Skip-to-My-Lou "  and  "  Old  Bald  Eagle,  Sail 
Around,"  and  "  Thus  the  Farmer  Sows  His  Seed,"  and  he 
moved  around  the  room  singing  about  the  millwheel  and  had 
to  grab  quickly  when  partners  were  changed  or  stand  in  the 
middle  and  be  ground  between  the  millstones.  As  large  a  pro 
portion  of  people's  known  wants  were  satisfied  on  Pigeon 
Creek  as  on  some  fashionable  boulevards.  We  need  not  seek 
to  hide  his  poverty  nor  idealize  it  unduly ;  neither  is  it  neces 
sary  to  waste  overmuch  of  pity  upon  people  who  did  not  find 
their  own  condition  pitiable. 

What  kind  of  man  had  been  produced  in  this  environment 
and  as  the  result  of  the  conditions  of  his  heredity  and  of  his 
inherent  qualities?  What  do  we  know  about  the  Abraham 
Lincoln  who  in  1830  took  simultaneous  leave  of  Indiana  and 
his  boyhood,  and  entered  at  once  upon  his  manhood  and  the 
new  State,  that,  twin-born  with  him,  was  waiting  his  arrival  ? 

He  was  a  tall,  awkward,  uncouth  backwoodsman,  strong 
of  muscle,  temperate  and  morally  clean.  He  had  physical 
strength  and  was  not  a  bully;  was  fond  of  a  fight  but  fought 
fairly  and  as  a  rule  on  the  side  of  weakness  and  of  right. 
He  was  free  from  bad  habits  of  all  kinds,  was  generous,  sym 
pathetic,  and  kind  of  heart.  He  was  as  yet  uninfluenced  by 
any  women  except  his  own  dead  mother  and  his  stepmother. 
He  was  socially  shy,  and  had  not  profited  greatly  by  the 
meager  lessons  in  social  usage  which  had  been  taught  in 
Andrew  Crawford's  school.  He  was  fond  of  cock-fighting 
and  of  boisterous  sports,  and  had  a  sufficient  leadership  to 
proclaim  himself  "  the  big  buck  of  the  lick  "  and  to  have  that 
declaration  pass  unchallenged. 

He  could  read,  write,  and  cipher,  and  was  eager  for  learn 
ing.  He  was  ambitious,  but  his  ambitions  had  no  known 
focus.  He  was  only  moderately  industrious,  but  could  work 
hard  when  he  had  to  do  so.  He  had  some  ambition  to  write 
and  to  speak  in  public,  but  as  yet  he  had  little  idea  what  he 
was  to  write  or  speak  about.  He  was  a  great,  hulking  back- 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  47 

woodsman,  with  vague  and  haunting  aspirations  after  some 
thing  better  and  larger  than  he  had  known  or  seemed  likely 
to  achieve. 

What  do  we  know  about  the  spiritual  development  of  the 
young  Boanerges  who  grew  almost  overnight  in  his  eleventh 
year  into  a  six-footer  and  was  so  wearied  by  the  effort  that 
he  was  slow  of  body  and  mind  and  was  thought  by  some  to  be 
lazy  ever  afterward  ? 

We  know  the  books  he  read — the  Bible,  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
JEsop's  Fables,  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  Weems'  Life  of  Wash 
ington.  It  was  a  good  collection,  and  he  made  the  most  of  it. 
Sarah  Bush  Lincoln  noted  that  while  he  did  not  like  to  work 
he  liked  to  read,  and  she  said,  "  I  induced  my  husband  to 
permit  Abe  to  study  "  (Herndon,  I,  36). 

John  Hanks  said  of  him,  "  He  kept  the  Bible  and  JEsop's 
Fables  always  within  reach,  and  read  them  over  and  over 
again." 

Sarah  Bush  did  not  claim  that  he  showed  any  marked 
preference  for  the  Bible.  Lamon  quotes  her  as  saying,  "  He 
seemed  to  have  a  preference  for  the  other  books  "  (Life,  pp. 
34,  486).  But  he  certainly  read  the  Bible  with  diligence,  as 
his  whole  literary  style  shows.  Indeed,  if  we  had  only  his 
coarse  "  First  Chronicles  of  Reuben,"  which  we  could  heartily 
wish  he  had  never  written,  and  whose  publication  in  Herndon's 
first  edition  was  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  an  expurgated 
edition,9  we  should  know  that  even  then  Abe  Lincoln,  rough, 
uncouth  and  vulgar  as  he  was,  was  modeling  his  style  upon 
the  Bible. 

We  are  told  that  when  he  went  to  church  he  noted  the 
oddities  of  the  preachers  and  afterward  mimicked  them 
(Lamon:  Life,  pp.  55,  486).  This  might  have  been  ex 
pected,  for  two  reasons.  First,  he  had  a  love  of  fun  and  of 
very  boisterous  fun  at  that;  secondly,  he  had  a  fondness  for 
oratory,  and  this  was  the  only  kind  of  oratory  he  knew  any 
thing  about. 

9  In  my  own  judgment,  it  would  have  been  better  to  have  let  the 
first  edition  stand.  It  ought  not  to  have  included  these  vulgarities;  but 
they  are  not  so  bad  as  the  impression  which  is  created  by  the  knowledge 
that  a  new  edition  had  to  be  made  on  their  account.  They  are  coarse 
bits  of  rustic  buffoonery. 


48    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  Lincoln  family  appears 
never  at  any  time  in  its  history  to  have  been  strongly  under 
the  influence  of  Methodism.10  This  is  not  because  they  did  not 
know  of  it;  no  pioneer  could  hide  so  deep  in  the  wilderness  as 
to  be  long  hidden  from  the  Methodist  circuit  riders.  But  the 
prevailing  and  almost  the  sole  type  of  religion  in  that  part  of 
Indiana  during  Lincoln's  boyhood  was  Baptist,  and  in  spite 
of  all  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  believed  about  the  freedom  of  it,  it 
was  a  very  unprogressive  type  of  preaching.  The  preachers 
bellowed  and  spat  and  whined,  and  cultivated  an  artificial 
"  holy  tone  "  and  denounced  the  Methodists  and  blasphemed 
the  Presbyterians  and  painted  a  hell  whose  horror  even  in  the 
backwoods  was  an  atrocity.  Against  it  the  boy  Abe  Lincoln 
rebelled.  Many  another  boy  with  an  active  mind  has  been 
driven  by  the  same  type  of  preaching  into  infidelity. 

Dr.  Johnson  quotes  as  indicative  of  the  religious  mind  of 
the  young  Lincoln  the  four  lines  u  which  in  his  fourteenth  year 
he  wrote  on  the  flyleaf  of  his  schoolbook,  and  the  two  lines 
which  he  wrote  in  the  copybook  of  a  schoolmate : 

"Abraham  Lincoln 
his  hand  and  pen — 
he  will  be  good  but 
God  knows  When  "  ; 

10 1  do  not  forget  that  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks  were 
married  by  Rev.  Jesse  Head,  who  was  a  Methodist  preacher.  But  I  do 
not  find  evidence  that  Mr.  Head  exerted  any  marked  influence  over  them. 
Mr.  Head  was  not  only  a  minister,  but  a  justice  of  the  peace,  an  anti- 
slavery  man,  and  a  person  of  strong  and  righteous  character.  I  am  not 
sure  whether  the  fact  that  he  performed  this  marriage  is  not  due  in 
some  measure  to  the  fact  that  he  was  about  the  court  house,  and  a 
convenient  minister  to  find. 

11  Dr.  Chapman  goes  even  beyond  Johnson  in  his  admiration  of 
these  youthful  lines.  He  says : 

"  It  is  profoundly  significant  that  this  child  of  destiny,  at  his  life's 
early  morning,  in  clumsy  but  impressive  verse  thus  reverently  coupled 
his  name  with  that  of  his  Creator.  ...  I  am  not  claiming  for  this 
fragment  of  a  Lincoln  manuscript  any  divine  inspiration  "  (Latest  Light 
on  Lincoln,  p.  315). 

But  he  stops  little  short  of  that,  and  might  about  as  well  have 
claimed  it.  The  simple  truth  is  that  the  lines  have  no  significance  what 
ever.  They  were  a  current  bit  of  schoolboy  doggerel,  not  original  with 
Lincoln,  and  were  scribbled  by  him  as  by  other  boys,  with  no  real  pur 
pose  beyond  that  of  working  his  name  into  a  jingle. 


LINCOLN'S  BOYHOOD  49 

and 

"  Good  boys  who  to  their  books  apply 
Will  all  be  great  men  by  and  by." 

Commenting  on  these  Dr.  Johnson  says :  "  These  show  two 
things :  First,  that  the  youthful  boy  had  faith  in  his  mother's 
God ;  and,  second,  that  he  believed  his  mother's  teachings."  12 

In  like  manner  Dr.  Johnson  takes  the  four  hymns  which 
Dennis  Hanks  remembered  to  have  been  sung  by  himself  and 
Abe  and  says: 

"  A  soul  that  can  appreciate  these  hymns  must  recognize, 
first,  that  without  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission 
of  sin;  second,  that  Jesus  Christ  died  upon  the  Cross  for  the 
salvation  of  the  world;  third,  that  life  without  the  Saviour  is 
an  empty  bubble,  and,  fourth,  that  loyal  devotion  to  the  Christ 
and  his  cause  is  man's  highest  calling,  and  the  test  of  true 
character." — Lincoln  the  Christian,  pp.  28-29. 

This  is  very  far-fetched.  It  shows  only  that  Abe  sang 
such  songs,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  as  were  current  in  his 
day,  and  without  any  very  fine  discrimination  either  in  songs 
sacred  or  secular.  If  one  were  to  make  a  creed  out  of  any  of 
his  poetry  in  this  period,  it  were  better  to  find  it  in  his  jingle, 
about  the  Kickapoo  Indian,  Johnny  Kongapod.ia  He  was 
supposed  to  have  composed  an  epitaph  for  himself  that  ran  on 
this  wise : 

"  Here  lies  poor  Johnny  Kongapod; 
Have  mercy  on  him,  gracious  Godf 
As  he  would  do  if  he  was  God 
And  you  were  Johnny  Kongapod." 

12  I  have  seen  these  and  other  examples  of  Lincoln's  early  penman 
ship  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik. 

13  The   story    of   Johnny    Kongapod    was   one   which   Lincoln   often 
related  in  after  life.     It  is  found  in  several  collections  of  his  stories,  and 
with  some  variation.    The  Indian  himself  has  found  a  place  in  literature 
in  "  In  the  Boyhood  of  Lincoln  "  by  my  friend,  now  deceased,  Hezekiah 
Butterworth.    The  epitaph  more  nearly  in  its  ancient  English  form  is 
found  in  "David  Elginbrod,"  by  George  Macdonald: 

"Here  lie  I,  Martin  Elginbrod; 
Hae  mercy  o'  my  soul,  Lord  God, 
As  I  would  hae  if  I  were  God, 
And  Thou  wert  Martin  Elginbrod." 


50     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

It  matters  not  for  our  purpose  that  these  lines  were  not 
strictly  original  with  Johnny  Kongapod.  We  meet  them  in 
George  Macdonald's  story  "  David  Elginbrod,"  and  they  have 
been  used  doubtless  in  rural  England  for  generations.  But 
they  involve  a  certain  rude  and  noble  faith  that  the  Judge  of 
all  the  earth  will  do  right  and  that  divine  justice  and  human 
justice  have  a  common  measure.  Lincoln  never  forgot  that, 
and  he  learned  it  on  Pigeon  Creek. 

Herndon  is  our  authority,  if  we  needed  any,  that  the  Bap 
tist  preaching  of  Lincoln's  boyhood  made  him  a  lifelong 
fatalist.1*  He  emerged  into  manhood  with  the  conviction  that 
"  whatever  is  to  be  will  be,"  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  declared  that 
this  was  his  answer  to  threats  concerning  his  assassination; 
that  it  had  been  his  lifelong  creed  and  continued  still  to  be  the 
ruling  dogma  of  his  life. 

It  would  have  gladdened  the  heart  of  Sarah  Bush  if  her 
stepson,  whom  she  loved  with  a  tenderness  almost  surpassing 
that  which  she  bestowed  upon  her  own  flesh  and  blood,  had 
manifested  in  his  youth  some  signs  of  that  irresistible  grace 
which  was  supposed  to  carry  the  assurance  of  conversion  as 
an  act  not  of  man  but  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  did  not  mani 
fest  that  grace  in  the  form  in  which  she  desired.  She  could 
not  consistently  blame  him  very  much,  for,  according  to  her 
own  creed  and  that  of  Thomas  Lincoln,  nothing  that  he  could 
have  done  of  his  own  volition  would  have  mattered  very  much. 

Horace  Bushnell's  Christian  Nurture  had  not  yet  been 
written;  and  if  it  had  there  was  not  a  preacher  among  the 
Baptists  in  southern  Indiana  who  would  not  have  denounced 
it  as  a  creation  of  the  devil.  There  were  no  Sunday  schools 
in  those  churches,  and  when  they  began  to  appear  they  were 
vigorously  opposed.  There  was  no  Christian  nurture  for  the 
boy  Abe  Lincoln  save  the  sincere  but  lethargic  religion  of  his 
father  and  the  motherly  ministrations  of  his  stepmother. 

But  "  Abe  was  a  good  boy."  With  tears  in  her  eyes  Sarah 
Bush  could  remember  that  he  never  gave  her  a  cross  word. 
He  was  unregenerate,  but  not  unlovable;  and  he  had  more 
faith  than  perhaps  he  realized. 

14  "  His  early  Baptist  training  made  him  a  fatalist  to  the  day  of  his 
death"  (Herndon,  I,  34). 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ENVIROMENTS  OF  LINCOLN'S  YOUNG 
MANHOOD 

THE  second  period  of  Lincoln's  religious  life  extends  from  his 
removal  into  Illinois  in  March  of  1830  until  the  establishment 
of  his  residence  in  Springfield,  April  15,  1837. 

Thomas  Lincoln  was  a  thriftless  farmer  who  blamed  ex 
ternal  conditions  for  his  misfortunes.  Following  a  second 
appearance  of  the  "  milk  sick,"  which  came  to  southern  Indiana 
in  the  winter  of  1829,  he  and  his  family  removed  in  March 
of  1830  to  Illinois.  Abraham  was  twenty-one  years  of  age. 
He  assisted  his  father  to  get  established  in  the  new  home,  to 
which  a  wearying  journey  of  fourteen  days  had  brought  the 
household,  and  then  set  out  in  life  for  himself.  For  several 
months  he  worked  near  home,  but  in  the  spring  of  1831  he 
made  his  second  flatboat  trip  to  New  Orleans.  The  boat 
stuck  on  a  dam  at  Rutledge's  mill  at  New  Salem,  and  his 
ingenuity  in  getting  it  over  the  dam  won  him  local  fame  and 
had  something  to  do  with  his  subsequent  establishment  of  a 
home  there.  The  flatboat  stuck  on  April  19,  1831.  In  June 
he  returned  to  New  Salem  and  entered  into  business  with 
Denton  Offutt  in  a  small  and  non-remunerative  general  store. 
While  waiting  for  the  opening  of  this  store  he  became  ac 
quainted  with  Mentor  Graham,  a  school  teacher  of  local 
celebrity,  whom  Lincoln  assisted  as  clerk  of  a  local  election, 
and  through  him  learned  the  contents  of  Kirkham's  Grammar, 
and  also  acquired  the  essential  elements  of  surveying.  New 
Salem  was  a  sporadic  town  which  had  no  good  reason  to  exist. 
It  was  established  in  1829  and  lasted  barely  seven  years.  It 
was  located  on  the  Sangamon  River,  some  fifteen  miles  from 
Springfield. 

In  February,  1832,  this  flatboat  hand,  then  working  as 
clerk,  began  his  canvass  for  the  Legislature,  his  formal  an- 


52     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

nouncement  of  candidacy  appearing  March  9.  He  was  de 
feated,  but  received  an  encouraging  local  vote.  In  1832  he 
had  a  brief  experience  as  a  soldier,  serving  in  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  starting  in  pursuit  of  the  Indians  on  April  27  and 
returning  in  July.  Excepting  for  his  absences  at  the  Black 
Hawk  War  and  in  attendance  upon  the  meetings  of  the  Legis 
lature  in  Vandalia,  he  was  in  New  Salem  practically  during 
the  whole  of  the  history  of  that  little  town.  He  established 
a  partnership  in  the  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Berry,  keepers  of  a 
general  store,  a  business  for  which  he  had  no  qualification, 
and  he  accumulated  debts,  which  he  was  unable  to  pay  in  full 
until  after  his  first  term  in  Congress  seventeen  years  later. 
On  May  7,  1833,  he  became  postmaster  of  the  microscopic 
village  of  New  Salem,  and  held  that  position  until  May  30, 
1836,  about  which  date  the  town  disappeared.  In  August, 
1834,  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  then  sitting  at  Van 
dalia,  and  had  an  important  share  in  the  removal  of  the  state 
capital  from  there  to  Springfield. 

In  New  Salem  occurred  two  of  Lincoln's  three  recorded 
love  affairs.1  In  1834  he  fell  in  love  with  Ann  Rutledge,  to 

1The  story  of  Lincoln's  love  affairs  lies  mostly  outside  the  field 
of  our  present  inquiry.  He  had  at  least  one  more  of  them  than  his 
biographers  have  learned  about.  Those  that  are  best  known  are  the  ones 
with  Ann  Rutledge,  Mary  Owens,  and  Mary  Todd.  Lamon  declares  that 
Lincoln  loved  Miss  Matilda  Edwards,  sister  of  Ninian  W.  Edwards, 
whose  wife  was  sister  to  Mary  Todd.  He  gives  this  as  the  real  reason 
for  the  estrangement  of  Lincoln  and  his  fiancee  (Lamon's  Life  of  Lin 
coln,  p.  259).  This  is  vigorously  denied  by  members  of  the  Edwards 
family,  and  the  opinions  in  Springfield  are  anything  but  unanimous. 
Herndon  informs  us  that  in  1840,  when  Lincoln  was  thirty-one,  and 
during  the  period  when  he  was  attracted  to  Mary  Todd,  he  proposed  to 
Sarah  Rickard,  a  girl  of  sixteen.  The  present  writer  has  no  occasion 
to  go  into  the  discussions  attending  these  several  affairs  of  the  heart. 
Lincoln's  unsettled  condition  of  mind  on  matrimonial  and  other  matters 
is,  however,  an  important  element  in  any  study  of  his  religious  life  in 
this  period.  Herndon,  between  whom  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  little  love  was 
lost,  was  not  unwilling  to  inform  her  and  the  world  that  Lincoln  had 
loved  one  woman,  at  least,  more  than  he  ever  loved  her;  and  that  he 
married  her  reluctantly.  This  was  not  pleasant  information  for  a  proud 
and  erratic  grief-stricken  woman,  and  it  is  not  certain  that  Herndon 
was  impartial  authority  or  that  he  learned  the  whole  truth.  Lincoln  was 
not  a  lady's  man,  and  Mary  Owens  was  quite  right  in  deeming  him 
"  deficient  in  those  little  links  that  make  up  the  chain  of  a  woman's 
happiness." 

Students  of  the  Lincoln  material  are  informed  by  those  who  suppose 
themselves  to  know,  that  beside  the  above-mentioned  adventures,  Lincoln 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         53 

whom  he  became  engaged,  and  who  died,  August  25,  1835. 
In  the  autumn  of  1836  he  made  love  to  Miss  Mary  Owens, 
who  refused  him.  These  two  love  affairs  are  related  in  detail 
by  Lamon  and  by  Herndon;  the  second  of  them  gave  rise  to 
Lincoln's  letter  to  Mrs.  Browning,  one  of  the  least  creditable 
things  that  ever  came  from  his  pen  (Herndon,  I,  192). 

Heart-broken  over  the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  and  ashamed 
of  himself  for  his  lack  of  gallantry  in  his  love  affair  with  Miss 
Owens,  he  saw  New  Salem  doomed  in  all  its  hopes  of  being 
a  city. 

While  sitting  about  the  store  waiting  for  business  which  did 
not  come,  he  read  law  after  a  desultory  fashion,  becoming 
what  he  called  not  inappropriately  "  a  mast-fed  lawyer."  For 
the  benefit  of  any  reader  to  whom  this  term  conveys  no  mean 
ing,  it  may  be  stated  that  "  mast "  consists  of  acorns,  nuts, 
and  other  edible  commodities,  which  hogs  running  at  large  in 
the  wilderness  are  able  to  feed  upon.  Between  a  hog  corn- 
fed  in  a  stye  and  a  backwoods  mast-fed  razor-back,  there  is  a 
marked  difference,  and  Lincoln's  phrase  was  a  very  apt  one. 
In  the  autumn  of  1836  he  obtained  a  law  license.  On  March, 
1837,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  On  April  15,  1837,  he 
moved  to  Springfield. 

With  his  Springfield  experience  we  shall  deal  later ;  that  is 
an  epoch  by  itself.  We  now  consider  the  conditions  of  life  in 
New  Salem  and  their  influence  in  shaking  the  religious  char 
acter  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  New  Salem,  while  an  insignificant 
hamlet,  was  located  on  the  Sangamon  River  and  received  its 
share  of  the  travel  to  and  from  Springfield.  Its  central  insti 
tutions  were  its  tavern,  where  Lincoln  boarded,  and  the  store, 

had  at  least  one  additional  love  affair,  and  one  that  was  not  to  his  credit. 
They  are  told  that  the  proof  of  this  exists  in  an  unpublished  letter  from 
the  hand  of  Lincoln,  a  letter  sacredly  guarded  and  seldom  shown  by  its 
owner.  If  this  book  had  any  reason  to  go  at  length  into  the  subject  of 
Lincoln's  love  affairs,  I  should  be  glad  to  consider  that  matter  in  detail; 
for  the  owner  of  that  letter  has  permitted  me  to  read  and  copy  it,  and 
I  have  the  copy,  which  I  intend  to  use  in  another  volume  on  Lincoln. 
I  wish  to  say,  however,  that  the  letter,  which  is  a  free,  unguarded  note 
to  an  intimate  friend,  does  not  sustain  the  impression  that  Lincoln  had 
any  other  love  affair,  or  that  any  wrong  act  or  motive  lay  behind  his 
words.  Lincoln  was  not  a  tactful  man  in  his  relations  with  women;  but 
he  was  a  clean  man. 


54     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

where  he  read  grammar  and  law,  discussed  politics,  and  qc- 
casionally  sold  goods. 

The  influence  of  life  in  New  Salem  upon  the  mind  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  very  marked.  We  must  not  make  the 
mistake  of  considering  it  solely  in  the  character  of  a  poor  little 
frontier  town  destined  to  short  life  and  in  its  day  of  no 
consequence  to  the  world.  To  Lincoln  it  was  a  city,  and  it  had 
its  own  ambitions  to  become  a  greater  city.  Although  it  had 
scarcely  twenty  houses,  not  one  of  them  costing  much  over  a 
hundred  dollars,  and  not  more  than  a  hundred  inhabitants,  it 
was  to  him  no  mean  city.  Here  Lincoln  developed  rapidly. 
He  read,  discussed,  thought,  wrote,  and  spoke  on  a  wide 
variety  of  subjects.  His  style  was  that  of  florid  declamation, 
a  stump  oratory  with  some  affectation  of  erudition.  He  made 
the  most  of  his  few  books,  and  every  one  of  them  left  its  deep 
impression  upon  him.  He  continued  to  read  the  Bible,  and 
grew  somewhat  familiar  with  Shakespeare,  Burns,  and  even 
Byron.  While  there  was  no  church  building  in  New  Salem, 
and  church  services  were  irregular,  such  services  as  were  held 
were  generally  in  the  tavern  where  he  boarded,  a  tavern  kept 
at  first  by  James  Rutledge  and  afterward  by  Henry  Onstott. 
It  is  interesting  to  cull  out  of  T.  G.  Onstott's  reminiscences  a 
number  that  are  based  on  his  own  recollections,  supplemented 
perhaps  by  traditions  received  f rorn  his  father : 

"  After  James  Rutledge  moved  out  of  the  log  tavern,  my 
father,  Henry  Onstott,  moved  in  and  occupied  it  from  1833 
till  1835,  and  still  had  for  a  boarder  Abraham  Lincoln.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  my  early  impressions  of  him  were  formed. 
We  did  not  know  at  that  time  that  we  were  entertaining  an 
angel  unawares.  My  first  knowledge  of  him  was  as  a  great 
marble  player.  He  kept  us  small  boys  running  in  all  directions 
gathering  up  the  marbles  he  would  scatter.  During  this  time 
he  followed  surveying,  having  learned  in  six  weeks  from 
books  furnished  him  by  John  Calhoun,  of  Springfield.  About 
this  time  he  commenced  to  read  some  law-books  which  he  bor 
rowed  of  Bowling  Green,  who  lived  one-half  mile  north  of 
Salem.  I  think  my  father  and  Esquire  Green  did  more  than 
any  other  two  men  in  determining  Lincoln's  future  destiny." — 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         55 

T.  G.  ONSTOTT  :  Lincoln  and  Salem — Pioneers  of  Menard  and 
Mason  Counties,  p.  25. 

Of  Lincoln's  habits  he  says: 

"  Lincoln  never  drank  liquor  of  any  kind  and  never  chewed 
or  smoked.  We  never  heard  him  swear,  though  Judge  Weldon 
said  at  the  Salem  Chautauqua  that  once  in  his  life  when  he 
was  excited  he  said,  *  By  Jing!'" — ONSTOTT:  Lincoln  and 
Salem,  p.  73. 

Of  Peter  Cartwright,  Onstott  says: 

"  He  was  a  great  man  for  camp-meetings  and  prayer  meet 
ings.  He  was  converted  at  a  camp-meeting,  and  in  his  early 
ministry  lived  in  a  tented  grove  from  two  to  three  months 
in  a  year.  He  said :  '  May  the  day  be  eternally  distant  when 
camp-meetings,  class  meetings,  prayer  meetings,  and  love  feasts 
shall  be  laid  aside  in  Methodist  churches/  .  .  . 

"  There  was  sound  preaching  in  those  days.  The  preachers 
preached  hell  and  damnation  more  than  they  do  now.  They 
could  hold  a  sinner  over  the  pit  of  fire  and  brimstone  till 
he  could  see  himself  hanging  by  a  slender  thread,  and  he  would 
surrender  and  accept  the  gospel  that  was  offered  to  him." — 
ONSTOTT:  Lincoln  and  Salem,  pp.  120,  127. 

Of  one  of  these  preachers,  Abraham  Bale,  Onstott  says: 

"  He  had  a  habit  when  preaching  of  grasping  his  left  ear 
with  his  hand,  then  leaning  over  as  far  as  he  could  and  lower 
ing  his  voice.  He  would  commence  to  straighten  up  and  his 
voice  would  rise  to  a  high.  key.  He  would  pound  the  Bible 
with  his  fist  and  stamp  the  floor,  and  carry  everything  before 
him.  He  created  excitement  in  the  first  years  of  his  ministry 
in  Salem.  He  was  a  Baptist,  though  not  of  the  hardshell 
persuasion." — ONSTOTT  :  Lincoln  and  Salem,  p.  149. 

This  was  the  general  and  accepted  habit  of  Baptist 
preachers  in  that  movement,  and  the  author  has  heard  scores 
of  sermons  delivered  in  this  fashion. 

Of  the  religious  life  of  early  Illinois  and  of  frontier  com 
munities  in  general,  Professor  Pease  says : 


56     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  Religion  came  to  be  the  most  universally  persuasive 
intellectual  force  of  the  frontier.  As  might  be  expected,  on 
the  frontier  the  first  tendency  was  toward  a  disregard  of 
religious  observances.  The  emigrant  from  the  older  settled 
regions  left  behind  him  the  machinery  and  the  establishment 
of  sectarian  religion.  Until  that  machinery  could  be  set  up 
again  on  the  frontier  he  lived  without  formal  worship  and 
often  for  the  time  at  least  the  sense  of  the  need  of  it  passed 
out  of  his  life.  In  cases  where  observance  had  been  due  to 
social  convention,  there  was  no  doubt  a  welcome  feeling  of 
freedom  and  unrestraint. 

"  Normally  the  frontiersman  was  unreligious.  Birkbeck 
noted  with  relish  the  absence  of  ceremony  at  baptism  or  funeral 
and  the  tolerance  of  all  backwoods  preachers  alike,  whether 
they  raved  or  reasoned.  Sunday  was  a  day  for  riot  and  dis 
order.  Other  observers  looked  with  horror  on  such  a  state  of 
things,  did  their  best  to  set  up  at  least  stated  regular  worship, 
and  noted  an  improvement  in  morals  as  a  result." — PEASE: 
Centennial  History  of  Illinois,  II,  23. 

There  were,  however,  some  compensations.  Fordham 
wrote : 

"  This  is  not  the  land  of  hypocrisy.  It  would  not  here 
have  its  reward.  Religion  is  not  the  road  to  wordly  respecta 
bility,  nor  a  possession  of  it  the  cloak  of  immorality." — 
Personal  Narrative,  p.  128. 

Of  the  sporadic  nature  of  much  of  the  religious  effort  on 
the  frontier,  Professor  Buck  says : 

"  In  spite  of  the  tremendous  exertions  of  the  pioneer 
preachers,  many  of  the  remote  settlements  must  have  been 
practically  devoid  of  religious  observances,  and  even  in  the 
older  settlements  the  influence  of  occasional  visitations,  how 
ever  inspiring  they  might  be,  was  often  lacking  in  perma 
nence." — Illinois  in  1818,  p.  179. 

Of  the  lack  of  permanence  there  may  be  some  room  for  a 
difference  of  judgment;  there  certainly  was  lack  of  continuity. 
As  in  Kentucky  and  southern  Indiana,  and  for  a  time  in 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         57 

southern  Illinois,  there  was  no  expectation  of  a  regular  weekly 
religious  service  conducted  by  any  one  minister,  but  preachers 
moved  in  extended  circuits  and  no  considerable  settlement  was 
long  without  occasional  religious  service. 

There  was  much  godlessness  in  many  of  the  early  settle 
ments.  John  Messenger  wrote  in  1815:  "The  American  in 
habitants  in  the  villages  appear  to  have  very  little  reverence 
for  Christianity  or  serious  things  in  any  point  of  view." 

While  there  was  some  attempt  at  Sabbath  observance, 
Reynolds  says: 

"  In  early  times  in  many  settlements  of  Illinois,  Sunday 
was  observed  by  the  Americans  only  as  a  day  of  rest  from 
work.  They  generally  were  employed  in  hunting,  fishing,  get 
ting  up  their  stock,  hunting  bees,  breaking  young  horses,  shoot 
ing  at  marks,  horse  and  foot  racing,  and  the  like.  When 
the  Americans  were  to  make  an  important  journey  they  gen 
erally  started  on  Sunday  and  never  on  Friday;  they  often 
said,  '  the  better  the  day  the  better  the  deed/  " — REYNOLDS  : 
My  Own  Times,  p.  80. 

One  must  not  infer  from  the  irregularity  of  religious 
services  that  the  people  in  these  new  regions  were  wholly  with 
out  religion.  Professor  Buck  says : 

"  The  spiritual  welfare  of  the  Illinois  pioneers  was  not 
neglected.  The  religious  observances,  with  the  exception  of 
those  of  the  French  Catholics,  were  of  the  familiar  type.  The 
principal  Protestant  denominations  at  the  close  of  the  terri 
torial  period  were  the  Methodists  and  the  Baptists,  the  latter 
classified  as  'regular,'  or  'hardshell/  and  separating.  Pres- 
byterianism  was  just  beginning  to  get  a  foothold.  The  min 
isters  were  of  two  types — the  circuit  rider,  who  covered  wide 
stretches  of  country  and  devoted  all  his  time  to  religious  work, 
and  the  occasional  preacher  who  supplemented  his  meager  in 
come  from  the  church  by  farming  or  some  other  occupation." 
— BUCK  :  Illinois  in  1818,  p.  173. 

Governor  Ford  has  left  an  account  of  the  unlearned  but 
zealous  frontier  preachers,  of  their  sermons,  and  of  the  results 
of  their  work,  which  cannot  easily  be  improved  upon : 


58     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  Preachers  of  the  gospel  frequently  sprang  up  from  the 
body  of  the  people  at  home,  without  previous  training,  except 
in  religious  exercises  and  in  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
In  those  primitive  times  it  was  not  thought  to  be  necessary 
that  a  teacher  of  religion  should  be  a  scholar.  It  was  thought 
to  be  his  business  to  preach  from  a  knowledge  of  the  Scrip 
tures  alone,  to  make  appeals  warm  from  the  heart,  to  paint 
heaven  and  hell  to  the  imagination  of  the  sinner,  to  terrify 
him  with  the  one,  and  to  promise  the  other  as  a  reward  for 
a  life  of  righteousness.  However  ignorant  these  first  preachers 
may  have  been,  they  could  be  at  no  loss  to  find  congregations 
still  more  ignorant,  so  that  they  were  still  capable  of  in 
structing  someone.  Many  of  them  added  to  their  knowledge 
of  the  Bible,  a  diligent  perusal  of  Young's  Night  Thoughts, 
Watts'  hymns,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  and  Hervey's  Medita 
tions,  a  knowledge  of  which  gave  more  compass  to  their 
thoughts,  to  be  expressed  in  a  profuse,  flowery  language,  and 
raised  their  feelings  to  the  utmost  height  of  poetical  en 
thusiasm. 

"  Sometimes  their  sermons  turned  upon  matters  of  con 
troversy;  unlearned  arguments  on  the  subject  of  free  grace, 
baptism,  free-will,  election,  faith,  good  works,  justification, 
sanctification,  and  the  final  perseverance  of  the  saints.  But 
that  in  which  they  excelled,  was  the  earnestness  of  their  words 
and  manner,  leaving  no  doubt  of  the  strongest  conviction  in 
their  own  minds,  and  in  the  vividness  of  the  pictures  which 
they  drew  of  the  ineffable  blessedness  of  heaven,  and  the 
awful  torments  of  the  wicked  in  the  fire  and  brimstone  ap 
pointed  for  eternal  punishment.  These,  with  the  love  of  God 
to  sinful  man,  the  sufferings  of  the  Saviour,  the  dangerous 
apathy  of  sinners,  and  exhortations  to  repentance,  furnished 
themes  for  the  most  vehement  and  passionate  declamations. 
But  above  all,  they  continually  inculcated  the  great  principles 
of  justice  and  sound  morality. 

"  As  many  of  these  preachers  were  nearly  destitute  of 
learning  and  knowledge,  they  made  up  in  loud  hallooing  and 
violent  action  what  they  lacked  in  information.  And  it  was 
a  matter  of  astonishment  to  what  length  they  could  spin  out 
a  sermon  embracing  only  a  few  ideas.  The  merit  of  a  sermon 
was  measured  somewhat  by  the  length  of  it,  by  the  flowery 
language  of  the  speaker,  and  by  his  vociferation  and  violent 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         59 

gestures.  Nevertheless,  these  first  preachers  were  of  incal 
culable  benefit  to  the  country.  They  inculcated  justice  and 
morality,  and  to  the  sanction  of  the  highest  human  motives  to 
regard  them,  added  those  which  arise  from  a  belief  of  the 
greatest  conceivable  amount  of  future  rewards  and  punish 
ments.  They  were  truly  patriotic  also;  for  at  a  time  when 
the  country  was  so  poor  that  no  other  kind  of  ministry  could 
have  been  maintained  in  it,  they  preached  without  charge  to 
the  people,  working  week  days  to  aid  the  scanty  charities  of 
their  flocks,  in  furnishing  themselves  with  a  scantier  living. 
They  believed  with  a  positive  certainty  that  they  saw  the  souls 
of  men  rushing  to  perdition ;  and  they  stepped  forward  to  warn 
and  to  save,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  and  self-devotion  of  a 
generous  man  who  risks  his  own  life  to  save  his  neighbor  from 
drowning.  And  to  them  are  we  indebted  for  the  first  Christian 
character  of  the  Protestant  portion  of  this  people." — THOMAS 
FORD  :  History  of  Illinois,  pp.  38-40. 

"  Of  the  hostility  of  certain  of  the  early  Baptists  to  en 
lightenment,  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  their  own  fierce 
opposition  to  their  ablest  minister,  John  Mason  Peck.  He  was 
born  in  1789  in  the  Congregational  atmosphere  of  Connecticut, 
but,  becoming  a  Baptist  by  conviction,  became  a  missionary  to 
the  West  in  1817.  His  foes  were  they  of  his  own  household. 
They  fiercely  fought  against  Bible  societies,  Sunday  schools, 
and  missionary  societies.  In  1828,  when  Peter  Cartwright  and 
James  Lemen  endeavored  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  bill  for 
the  prevention  of  vice  and  immorality,  there  was  an  attempt  to 
amend  it  in  the  interests  of  certain  of  the  Hardshell  Baptists 
by  adding  to  the  section  against  the  disturbance  of  public 
worship  a  clause  to  fine  in  any  sum  not  less  than  five  dollars 
or  more  than  fifteen  any  person  who  on  Sunday  would  sell 
any  pamphlet  or  book  or  take  up  an  offering  '  for  the  support 
of  missionary  societies,  Bible  societies,  or  Sunday  school/ 
There  were  not  less  than  twelve  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  who  voted  for  this  bill." — PEASE  :  Centennial 
History  of  Illinois,  II,  28,  29. 

One  evidence  of  the  hostility  of  many  of  the  early  inhabi 
tants  and  especially  of  some  who  were  active  in  politics  toward 
organized  religion,  as  well  as  the  tendency  of  ministers  of  that 


60    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

period  to  participate  in  politics,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  Illinois 
narrowly  escaped  having  in  her  Constitution  a  provision  dis 
qualifying  all  ministers  to  hold  office  in  the  State.  When  the 
Constitutional  Convention  assembled  at  Kaskaskia  this  ques 
tion  was  earnestly  discussed,  and  the  controversy  was  waged 
also  in  the  columns  of  the  Western  Intelligencer,  which  was 
published  in  Kaskaskia  from  1806  to  1814.  A  writer  who 
signed  himself  "  A  Foe  to  Religious  Tyranny  "  roundly  de 
nounced  the  political  sermons  of  certain  of  the  ministers,  and 
charged  that  they  intended  to  disqualify  any  citizens  for  office 
excepting  "  professors  of  religion." 

When  the  first  draft  of  the  Constitution  was  submitted  in 
August,  1818,  Article  II,  Section  26,  read:  "Whereas  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  are  by  their  profession  dedicated  to 
God  and  the  care  of  souls,  and  ought  not  to  be  diverted  from 
the  great  duties  of  their  function:  Therefore,  no  minister  of 
the  gospel  or  priest  of  any  denomination  whatever,  shall  be 
eligible  to  a  seat  in  either  house  of  the  Legislature." 

This  article  was  warmly  commended  by  a  writer  in  the 
Intelligencer  under  date  of  August  12,  1818,  who  commended 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution  for  their  provision  "  to  exempt 
ministers  of  the  gospel  from  the  servile  and  arduous  drudgery 
of  legislation,  and  of  electioneering  to  procure  themselves  seats 
in  the  Legislature,"  but  urged  the  convention  to  extend  the 
provision  so  as  to  disqualify  ministers  from  holding  any  office 
whatever.  A  number  of  members  of  the  Constitutional  Con 
vention  favored  this  drastic  proscription.  On  the  first  reading 
the  proposed  article  was  approved;  but  it  was  later  recon 
sidered  and  voted  down. 

Ministers  thus  were  left  on  a  plane  with  other  citizens  as 
regarded  the  holding  of  public  office;  and  their  candidacy  for 
the  Legislature  especially  was  not  infrequent;  indeed,  one  of 
the  writers  who  engaged  in  this  controversy  considered  the 
appalling  possibility  that  the  Constitutional  Convention  might 
have  been  composed  entirely  of  ministers,  and  that  some  future 
session  of  the  Legislature  might  find  them  in  complete  control. 
There  never  was  any  danger  that  ministers  would  make  up  a 
controlling  faction  in  the  Illinois  Legislature;  but  they  were 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         61 

not  a  negligible  element  in  the  early  political  life  of  the 
State. 

Lincoln  soon  came  into  the  political  atmosphere  which  was 
thus  affected  by  religious  controversy,  and  it  had  an  influence 
upon  him.  His  most  formidable  and  persistent  opponent,  until 
he  met  Douglas,  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  the  redoubtable 
Peter  Cartwright  who  defeated  him  in  a  contest  for  the  Legis 
lature  and  whom  he  defeated  in  a  race  for  Congress.  Lincoln 
was  quite  familiar  with  religion  in  its  relation  to  politics  in 
early  Illinois. 

Of  Lincoln's  theological  opinions,  especially  those  which 
he  cherished  while  at  New  Salem,  and  which  Herndon  believed 
he  did  not  materially  change,  Herndon  says : 

"  Inasmuch  as  he  was  often  a  candidate  for  public  office 
Mr.  Lincoln  said  as  little  as  possible  about  his  religious  opin 
ions,  especially  if  he  failed  to  coincide  with  the  orthodox  world. 
In  illustration  of  his  religious  code,  I  once  heard  him  say  that 
it  was  like  that  of  an  old  man  named  Glenn,  in  Indiana, 
whom  he  heard  speak  at  a  religious  meeting,  and  who  said, 
'  When  I  do  good,  I  feel  good ;  when  I  do  bad,  I  feel  bad ; 
and  that's  my  religion/  In  1834,  while  still  living  in  New 
Salem,  and  before  he  became  a  lawyer,  he  was  surrounded 
by  a  class  of  people  exceedingly  liberal  in  matters  of  religion. 
Volney's  Ruins  and  Paine's  Age  of  Reason  passed  from  hand 
to  hand,  and  furnished  food  for  the  evening's  discussion  in 
the  tavern  and  village  store.  Lincoln  read  both  these  books, 
and  assimilated  them  into  his  own  being.  He  prepared  an 
extended  essay — called  by  many,  a  book — in  which  he  made 
an  argument  against  Christianity,  striving  to  prove  that  the 
Bible  was  not  inspired,  and  therefore  not  God's  revelation, 
and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  the  Son  of  God.  The  manu 
script  containing  these  audacious  and  comprehensive  proposi 
tions  he  intended  to  have  published  or  given  a  wide  circulation 
in  some  other  way.  He  carried  it  to  the  store,  where  it  was 
read  and  freely  discussed.  His  friend  and  employer,  Samuel 
Hill,  was  among  the  listeners,  and  seriously  questioning  the 
propriety  of  a  promising  young  man  like  Lincoln  fathering 
such  unpopular  notions,  he  snatched  the  manuscript  from  his 
hands,  and  thrust  it  into  the  stove.  The  book  went  up  in 


62     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

flames,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  political  future  was  secure.  But  his 
infidelity  and  his  skeptical  views  were  not  diminished/' — 
HERNDON,  III,  439-440. 

We  shall  have  occasion  in  a  subsequent  chapter  to  recur 
to  this  so-called  book  which  Lincoln  is  alleged  to  have  written 
while  in  New  Salem.  It  is  sufficient  at  this  time  to  remember, 
and  the  fact  must  not  be  overlooked,  that  our  knowledge  of 
this  book  depends  solely  upon  the  testimony  of  Herndon. 
Herndon  never  saw  the  book,  and  so  far  as  is  known  he 
never  talked  with  anyone  who  had  seen  it.  He  affirms  that 
Lincoln  never  denied  having  written  a  book  on  the  subject 
of  religion,  but  he  nowhere  claims  that  Lincoln  told  him  in 
detail  concerning  its  contents.  Herndon's  principal  visit,  and 
perhaps  the  only  one  which  he  made  to  New  Salem  in  quest  of 
literary  material,  was  in  October  in  1866.  He  had  attended  the 
Circuit  Court  of  Menard  County  on  Saturday,  October  13,  and 
on  Sunday  morning  at  11:20  A.M.,  as  he  tells  us  with  pains 
taking  and  lawyer-like  particularity,  he  visited  the  site  of  New 
Salem.  That  afternoon  and  a  part  of  the  next  morning,  which 
he  says  was  misty,  cloudy,  foggy,  and  cold,  he  made  inquiry 
of  the  oldest  inhabitant  of  that  part  of  the  country  and  wrote 
out  the  substance  of  his  lecture  on  Ann  Rutledge.  This  was 
a  whole  generation  after  Lincoln  had  removed  from  the  now 
depopulated  New  Salem,  and  there  were  very  few  people  in 
the  neighborhood  who  remembered  him  through  any  personal 
association.  The  town  had  completely  disappeared,  but  Hern 
don  found  the  site  of  the  houses  that  once  had  stood  there, 
and  also  found  and  identified  the  grave  of  Ann  Rutledge.  To 
that  visit  we  are  indebted  for  a  good  deal  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  background  of  Lincoln's  life  during  this  formative 
epoch.  But  we  are  not  bound  to  accept  all  of  Mr.  Herndon's 
inferences  regarding  it. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Herndon's  lecture  did  not 
pass  unchallenged.  So  small  was  the  audience  when  he  de 
livered  it  and  so  uni formally  unfavorable  were  the  press  com 
ments  that  he  never  repeated  this  lecture,  and  some  of  its 
statements  are  open  to  question.  It  is  not  in  this  lecture  that 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         63 

we  learn  of  the  essay  which  Lincoln  is  alleged  to  have  written 
in  criticism  of  the  Bible,  but  that  was  the  visit  on  which 
Herndon  appears  to  have  gathered  his  information  concerning 
Lincoln's  more  intimate  relations  with  New  Salem. 

There  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt  that  Lincoln  during  this 
period  read  Volney  and  Paine,  and  that  having  read  them 
he  rushed  rather  quickly  to  paper  and  set  down  his  immature 
thoughts  in  argumentative  fashion.  It  would  divert  us  from 
our  present  purpose  of  portraying  the  environment  if  we  were 
to  consider  in  detail  at  this  point  the  story  of  Lincoln's  burnt 
book.  The  reader  will  do  well  to  remember,  however,  that 
Herndon,  though  truthful,  was  not  infallible  nor  on  this  point 
free  from  bias;  that  neither  Herndon  nor  anyone  else  then 
living  was  known  to  have  seen,  much  less  to  have  read,  the 
book  alleged  to  have  been  burned  thirty-two  years  before;  and 
that  there  was  abundant  opportunity  not  only  for  exaggeration 
but  even  for  a  complete  misunderstanding  concerning  the 
actual  content  of  this  book. 

Indeed,  this  incident  has  been  allowed  to  pass  with  too 
little  criticism  or  challenge.  Those  who  did  not  believe  Lincoln 
to  have  been  a  man  of  faith  were  glad  to  accept  the  story; 
those  who  believed  that  he  later  was  a  man  of  faith  were 
not  wholly  unwilling  to  believe  that  he  had  once  been  an 
infidel  and  later  had  undergone  a  marked  change  of  opinion. 
There  seemed  no  good  reason  to  dispute  Herndon,  and  no  one 
else  was  supposed  to  know  more  about  the  subject  than  he. 
But  we  shall  discover  that  Herndon  may  not  have  learned  the 
whole  truth.  There  is  more  than  a  possibility  that  the  manu 
script  that  was  burned  was  a  document  of  quite  another  sort. 

If  Lincoln  was  regarded  as  an  infidel,  and  if  he  ever  was 
tempted  to  think  himself  one,  we  should  not  be  justified  in 
accepting  that  judgment  as  final  until  we  knew  and  considered 
what  was  required  in  that  time  and  place  to  constitute  a  man 
an  infidel. 

In  the  mind  of  most  if  not  all  of  the  Baptist  preachers 
whom  Lincoln  heard  while  he  was  at  New  Salem,  a  belief 
that  the  earth  was  round  was  sufficient  to  brand  a  man  as  an 
infidel.  The  Methodists,  as  a  rule,  would  have  admitted  that 


64     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  earth  was  round,  but  Peter  Cartwright  would  probably 
have  considered  a  man  an  infidel  who  believed  that  the  earth 
was  not  created  in  seven  literal  days.  At  Vandalia,  Lincoln 
heard  some  ministers  of  wider  vision,  such  as  Edward  Beecher 
and  Julian  M.  Sturtevant,  who  were  occasionally  there,  and 
John  Mason  Peck ;  but  these  experiences  were  rare.  His  asso 
ciation  with  Methodists  was  largely  in  the  political  arena, 
where  he  crossed  swords  three  times  with  Peter  Cartwright. 
That  doughty  hero  of  the  Cross  was  born  in  Virginia  on 
September  i ,  1 786,  and  exerted  a  mighty  influence  for  good  in 
early  Illinois.  With  a  nominal  salary  of  $80  a  year,  and  an 
actual  salary  of  $30  or  $40,  he  rode  thousands  of  miles  through 
deep  mud,  baptized  8,000  children  and  4,000  adults,  conducted 
camp-meetings  and  political  campaigns,  and  sang  and  shouted 
and  in  his  own  language  whipped  the  devil  round  the  stump 
and  hit  him  a  crack  at  every  jump  until  his  death  at  Pleasant 
Plains,  Illinois,  September  25,  1872.  He  defeated  Lincoln 
for  the  Legislature,  and  was  defeated  by  him  for  Congress  in 
1846.  So  far  as  we  know,  Lincoln  left  no  record  of  his 
feeling  toward  Cartwright  and  the  Methodists.  He  could  not 
have  failed  to  respect  such  men,  but  it  is  not  altogether  certain 
that  he  was  tempted  to  love  them. 

By  the  time  Lincoln  was  seventeen,  and  possibly  earlier, 
he  believed  the  earth  to  be  round.  I  shall  not  succeed  in  mak 
ing  the  reader  understand  the  possible  effect  of  this  discovery 
upon  him  and  certain  of  his  associates  without  relating  an 
experience  of  my  own. 

In  the  summer  of  1881,  being  then  a  college  student  on 
vacation,  I  taught  school  in  the  mountains  of  Kentucky  far 
beyond  the  end  of  the  railroad.  The  school  was  a  large  and 
prosperous  one  and  brought  many  students  from  other  dis 
tricts  who  paid  a  trifling  tuition  and  were  preparing  to  teach. 
The  curriculum  included  everything  from  the  alphabet  to  a 
simplified  normal  course.  A  majority  of  my  pupils  had  but 
one  textbook,  Webster's  Blueback  Speller.  I  endeavored  to 
make  up  for  the  lack  of  textbooks  by  lessons  in  the  Natural 
Sciences  and  in  such  other  branches  of  study  as  seemed  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  my  pupils.  After  a  few  weeks  one  of 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         65 

my  pupils,  son  of  a  Baptist  minister,  was  taken  out  of  school. 
His  father  being  interviewed  stated  that  he  was  sorry  to  have 
the  boy  lose  his  education,  but  could  not  afford  to  permit  him 
to  be  converted  to  infidelity.  What  the  boy  had  learned  which 
disturbed  his  father  was  that  the  earth  was  round. 

The  subject  provoked  widespread  discussion,  and  finally 
resulted  in  a  joint  debate  between  two  school  teachers  and 
two  Baptist  preachers  on  the  question: 

"  Resolved,  That  the  earth  is  flat  and  stationary,  and  that 
the  sun  moves  around  it  once  in  twenty-four  hours." 

At  early  candle-lighting  on  two  successive  Friday  evenings 
this  question  was  debated.  On  each  night  the  procedure  was 
the  same.  Each  of  the  speakers  spoke  forty-five  minutes,  and 
each  of  the  leaders  spent  a  half-hour  in  rebuttal,  a  total  of  four 
hours  each  evening  of  solid  oratory.  I  should  like  to  relate, 
but  it  would  unduly  extend  this  narrative,  the  learned  argu 
ments  of  the  two  college  students  who  stood  for  the  rotundity 
of  the  earth,  and  how  those  arguments  were  met.  I  well 
remember  the  closing  argument  of  my  chief  opponent,  not 
the  local  preacher  but  an  abler  man  whom  he  brought  in,  the 
cousin  of  a  Confederate  General  of  the  same  name  (though 
himself  a  stanch  Union  man)  who  stood  beside  and  above 
me  with  long  descending  gestures  that  threatened  to  crush 
my  skull  as  he  shouted : 

"  He's  a  college  student-ah !  And  he's  come  out  here  to 
larn  us  and  instruct  us  about  the  shape  of  the  yarth-ah !  And 
he  knows  more'n  Joshua-ah !  And  he'd  take  Joshua  into  this 
here  school  and  tell  him  he  didn't  know  what  he'd  ort  to  pray 
f or-ah !  He'd  tell  Joshua  that  he  hadn't  orter  said, '  Sun,  stand 
thou  still  upon  Gibeon-ah,  and  thou  moon  in  the  valley  of 
Ajalon-ah ! '  He'd  tell  Joshua  that  he'd  ort  to  have  prayed, 
'  Yarth,  stand  thou  still  upon  thine  axle-tree-ah ! '  But  I 
reckon  God  knowed  what  Joshua  had  ort  to  have  prayed  for, 
for  it  is  written  in  the  Word  of  God  that  the  sun  stood 
still-ah !  I  tell  ye,  brethering,  hit's  the  doctrine  of  infidelity-ah ! 
And  any  man  that  teaches  it  ort  to  be  drove  out  of  the 
country-ah!  " 

There  is  much  more  of  the  story,  but  this  must  suffice 


66     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

to  illustrate  an  important  point.  Until  he  went  to  live  in 
Springfield,  Abraham  Lincoln  probably  never  had  heard  a 
Baptist  preacher,  unless  it  was  John  Mason  Peck  on  some 
errand  to  Vandalia,  who  did  not  believe  the  earth  flat,  and 
who  would  not  have  classified  Abraham  Lincoln  as  an  infidel 
for  denying  the  declaration. 

Now,  I  knew  that  I  was  not  an  infidel,  even  though  I 
parted  company  with  my  friends  in  the  Baptist  ministry  in 
my  belief  that  the  earth  was  round,  and  even  though  I  had  a 
similar  debate  with  a  well-informed  Methodist  preacher  on 
the  length  of  time  that  was  required  to  make  the  earth.  But 
Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  know.  Thomas  Paine  and  the 
preachers  were  agreed  in  their  misinformation. 

I  count  it  a  privilege  to  have  lived  with  earnest  and  intel 
ligent  people  who  believed  the  earth  flat,  and  to  whom  that 
belief  was  an  important  article  of  Christian  faith.  But  I 
saw  intelligent  young  men  who  had  come  to  another  opinion 
concerning  some  of  these  matters  who  accepted  without  protest 
the  names  that  overzealous  mountain  preachers  applied  to  them, 
and  who,  believing  themselves  to  be  infidels,  in  time  became  so. 

Not  many  of  Lincoln's  biographers,  if  indeed  any  of  them, 
have  shared  these  advantages  which  for  several  profitable 
years  I  had  in  the  mountains  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee; 
and  I  am  less  ready  than  some  of  even  the  most  orthodox  of 
them  have  been  to  accept  the  declaration  that  when  Lincoln 
left  New  Salem  he  was  an  infidel.  Even  if  I  knew  that  he 
thought  himself  to  be  such,  I  should  like  before  forming  my 
final  conclusion  to  know  just  what  he  thought  constituted  an 
infidel.  I  do  not  think  that  at  this  period  of  his  history 
Abraham  Lincoln  possessed  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the 
subject  to  have  been  altogether  competent  to  classify  himself. 

A  few  things  we  know  about  him.  He  had  established  a 
reputation  for  courage,  for  kindness,  and  for  honesty. 
"  Honest  Abe  "  was  his  sobriquet,  and  he  deserved  it.  What 
ever  his  opinions,  he  held  them  honestly;  and  neither  on  earth 
nor  in  heaven  can  any  man  be  rightfully  condemned  for  the 
holding  of  an  honest  opinion. 

We  shall  have  occasion  later  to  refer  to  Mentor  Graham, 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         67 

and  to  quote  him.  He  came  into  Lincoln's  life  at  this  time, 
and  taught  him  Kirkham's  Grammar,  and  the  study  of  sur 
veying,  and  assisted  him  with  his  literary  composition.  He 
knew  more  of  the  mind  of  Abraham  Lincoln  during  this  period 
than  any  other  man,  and  we  shall  hear  from  him  in  due 
time. 

New  Salem  "  winked  out,"  as  Lincoln  was  accustomed  to 
say.  It  disappeared  from  the  map.  The  post-office  was  dis 
continued.  There  was  nothing  to  hold  Lincoln  there.  But 
the  great  city  of  Springfield,  with  its  one  thousand  inhabitants 
and  its  majestic  pride  in  its  new  State  Capitol,  which  Lincoln 
had  done  much  to  remove  thither  from  Vandalia,  beckoned 
to  this  ambitious  young  lawyer  and  politician,  and  on  March 
15,  1837,  he  borrowed  a  horse,  rode  to  Springfield  with  all  his 
worldly  goods  in  his  saddlebags,  and  the  saddlebags  none  too 
full,  and  thereafter  became  a  resident  of  the  capital  city  of 
Illinois,  and  a  permanent  factor  in  its  legal  and  political  life. 

Lincoln  arrived  in  New  Salem  on  April  19,  1831,  a  tall, 
lank  flatboat  hand,  with  his  trousers  rolled  up  "  about  five 
feet,"  and  he  left  it  on  a  borrowed  horse  with  all  his  be 
longings  in  a  pair  of  saddlebags,  March  15,  1837.  So  far  as 
worldly  wealth  was  concerned,  he  was  richer  when  he  arrived 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two  than  when  he  left  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight,  for  he  was  heavily  in  debt.  It  had  fared  better 
with  him  financially  had  he  spent  those  six  years  in  Illinois 
College  at  Jacksonville.  He  might  have  entered  Springfield 
at  the  same  time  with  a  college  diploma  and  a  smaller  debt. 
A  college  education  was  not  impossible  for  him,  and  he  might 
have  had  it  had  he  cared  for  it  as  much  as  did  the  Green 
brothers  or  the  brother  of  Ann  Rutledge,  or,  among  his  later 
associates,  Shelby  M.  Collum  or  Newton  Bateman.  It  is  a 
fair  question  whether  an  education  under  such  good  and 
great  men  as  Julian  M.  Sturtevant  and  Edward  Beecher  would 
have  been  more  or  less  valuable  than  what  he  actually  got; 
in  any  event,  it  was  not  an  impossibility  if  he  had  cared  as 
much  for  it  as  did  some  other  boys  as  poor  as  he. 

But  New  Salem  was  his  alma  mater,  as  Mrs.  Atkinson 


68     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

has  aptly  termed  it,  and  there  he  got  what  had  to  stand  as 
the  equivalent  of  his  academic  course. 

To  have  seen  him  entering  New  Salem  on  a  flatboat  and 
leaving  it  on  a  borrowed  horse,  one  might  easily  have  arrived 
at  very  erroneous  conclusions  as  to  what  the  six  years  had 
done  for  him.  But  the  years  were  not  lost. 

He  came  to  New  Salem  a  strong  pioneer,  proud  of  his 
great  height,  and  he  always  remained  almost  childishly  proud 
of  it,  and  ready  to  challenge  any  other  tall  man  to  back  up  to 
him  and  discover  which  was  the  taller.  He  was  capable  of 
hard  work,  and  disinclined  to  perform  it.  Thomas  Lincoln 
had  taught  him  to  work,  but  not  to  love  work;  and  his  em 
ployers  declared  that  he  loved  labor  far  less  than  his  meals 
and  pay.  If  he  must  work,  he  preferred  almost  any  kind  of 
work  rather  than  that  of  the  farm,  and  he  had  welcomed  the 
brief  experiences  of  the  river  and  had  serious  thoughts  of  being 
a  blacksmith.  He  had  prized  his  great  strength  less  for  the 
labor  he  might  perform  than  for  the  supremacy  which  it  gave 
him  in  physical  contests;  and  it  had  made  him  the  admired 
leader  of  the  local  wrestlers  and  the  idol  of  the  Clary  Grove 
gang. 

He  had  come  to  New  Salem  able  to  read,  and  to  make 
what  he  called  "  rabbit  tracks "  as  clerk  on  election  day, 
assisting  Mentor  Graham,  who  rewarded  him  many  fold  in 
what  he  later  taught  to  the  young  giant.  He  left  New  Salem 
a  competent  surveyor,  a  member  of  the  bar,  a  representative 
in  the  Legislature,  and,  he  might  have  called  himself  Captain, 
if  he  had  chosen  to  do  so,  or  even  taken  advantage  of  the 
frontier's  ready  system  of  post-bellum  promotions  and  ac 
quired  higher  rank  as  an  officer  who  had  seen  actual  military 
service.  He  had  the  good  sense  not  to  do  this,  and  about  the 
only  commendable  thing  in  his  one  important  speech  in  Con 
gress  in  later  years  was  his  mirthful  description  of  his  own 
military  performance. 

He  had  learned  to  think,  to  compose  reasonably  good 
English,  to  stand  on  his  feet  and  debate.  He  had  learned  to 
measure  his  intellectual  strength  against  that  of  other  men, 
and  to  come  out  ahead  at  least  part  of  the  time.  He  was  pos- 


LINCOLN'S  YOUNG  MANHOOD         69 

sessed  of  almost  inordinate  ambition,  and  had  no  false  notion 
that  in  his  case  the  office  was  to  seek  the  man; 2  he  was  more 
than  ready  for  any  office  that  would  support  him,  enable  him 
to  reduce  his  "  national  debt,"  and  advance  him  toward  some 
thing  higher.  He  was  entering  the  profession  of  the  law,  but 
law  was  to  him  as  yet  a  means  to  an  end,  and  that  end  was 
office.  Politics  was  the  vocation  and  law  the  avocation  in  a 
large  percentage  of  the  law  offices  in  Illinois  and  other  new 
States;  and  Lincoln  was  a  politician  long  before  he  was  a 
lawyer. 

His  residence  in  New  Salem  had  tested  his  moral  character 
and  confirmed  his  personal  habits.  He  did  not  drink  nor 
swear  nor  use  tobacco. 

In  a  state  of  society  such  as  then  existed,  there  was  almost 
nothing  which  such  a  young  man  might  not  have  aspired  to, 
and  Lincoln  had  high  self-esteem  and  large  aspiration.  From 
this  distance  we  see  him  leaving  New  Salem  to  "  wink  out " 
while  he  rode  his  borrowed  steed  far  beyond  Springfield,  to 
tether  him  at  last  where  Thomas  Jefferson  is  alleged  to  have 
hitched  his  horse,  to  the  palings  of  the  White  House. 

But  it  was  no  exultant  mood  which  possessed  the  soul  of 
Lincoln  as  he  turned  his  back  upon  his  alma  mater  and  went 
forth  to  conquer  the  world.  He  was  a  briefless  lawyer,  and 
bedless  as  well  as  briefless.  He  had  met  and  mastered  men, 
but  had  become  painfully  aware  of  his  own  poverty,  his  lack 
of  education,  his  utter  ignorance  of  the  usages  of  even  such 
polite  society  as  had  been  in  New  Salem,  to  say  nothing  of 
that  in  Springfield. 

He  was  unsettled  in  love  and  unsettled  in  religion,  though 
he  had  been  on  speaking  terms  with  both.  He  had  loved  and 
lost  Ann  Rutledge,  and  he  did  not  love  Mary  Owens  and 
could  not  lose  her.  He  was  about  to  begin  one  of  the  loneliest 
periods  of  his  very  lonely  life.  For  a  year  only  one  woman 
in  Springfield  spoke  to  him,  and  she  would  rather  not  have 

2  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  never  agitated  by  any  passion  more  than  by  his 
wonderful  thirst  for  distinction.  There  is  no  instance  where  an  important 
office  was  within  his  reach,  and  he  did  not  try  to  get  it"  (Lamon,  Life 
of  Lincoln,  p.  237).  This  is  a  harsh  and  unfriendly  way  of  stating  it,  but 
it  is  not  wholly  false. 


70    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

done  so.  He  did  not  go  to  church  nor  mingle  in  society,  but 
faced  the  hard  and  bitter  problems  that  confronted  him  in 
earning  a  living,  making  some  small  payments  on  his  debt, 
settling  his  relations  with  Mary  Owens,  and  possibly  giving 
some  thought  to  his  soul.  But  this  was  not  a  time  of  one  of 
his  spiritual  high  water-marks. 

If  we  had  seen  Abraham  Lincoln  as  he  entered  New  Salem 
and  again  six  years  later  as  he  left  it,  we  should  have  found 
small  reason  to  anticipate  very  much  of  what  afterward 
occurred.  But  looking  back  upon  him  in  the  light  of  what 
occurred  afterward,  we  discern  the  "  promise  and  potency  " 
of  the  great  man  he  afterward  became  in  the  sad  young  man 
who  already  had  become  a  leader  of  men,  and  had  earned  the 
right  to  be  called  "  Honest  Abe." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN 
SPRINGFIELD 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  became  a  resident  of  Springfield  on  Wed 
nesday,  March  15,  1837,  and  continued  to  live  there  until  his 
removal,  Saturday,  February  n,  1860,  to  assume  his  duties 
as  President  of  the  United  States.  He  was  accepted  as 
partner  by  his  friend  and  former  commander,  Major  John  T. 
Stuart,  and  shared  an  office  in  which  politics  was  the  major 
interest  and  law  was  incidentally  practiced.  His  partnership 
with  Stuart  continued  for  four  years,  from  April  27,  1837, 
until  April  14,  1841.  His  next  partnership  was  with  Judge 
Stephen  T.  Logan,  and  extended  from  April  14,  1841,  to 
September  20,  1843. 

He  then  formed  a  partnership  with  William  H.  Herndon 
which  began  on  the  day  of  the  dissolution  of  the  partnership 
with  Judge  Logan  and  was  never  formally  dissolved.  Lincoln 
had  a  working  alliance  with  some  lawyer  in  almost  every 
county  seat  which  he  habitually  visited,  whereby  the  local 
lawyer  secured  the  cases  and  worked  them  up,  and  Lincoln 
took  them  in  charge  as  senior  counsel  when  they  came  to  trial.1 
These  were  not  formal  partnerships,  though  they  were  often 
so  spoken  of.  This  method  gave  him  a  large  practice,  and 

1  Mr.  John  E.  Burton  has  documentary  evidence  that  Lincoln  was 
associated  as  so-called  partner  with  seven  law  firms.  Mr.  Burton  has 
owned  the  firm  signatures  in  Lincoln's  handwriting  as  follows: 

Stuart  and  Lincoln   1838 

Ficklin  and  Lincoln  1842 

Logan  and  Lincoln  1845 

Harlan  and  Lincoln  1845 

Goodrich  and  Lincoln    October  1855 

Lincoln  and  Herndon  1852 

Lincoln  and  Lamon 

But  these  associates,  except  Stuart,  Logan,  and  Herndon,  were  not 
strictly  partnerships.  They  were  local  associations  with  lawyers  whose 
practice  he  shared. 


72     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

brought  him  into  contact  and  collision  with  the  ablest  lawyers 
in  central  and  southern  Illinois. 

In  1838  and  again  in  1840  he  was  re-elected  to  the  Legisla 
ture,  and  showed  little  of  the  ability  which  he  later  manifested, 
but  was  a  faithful  member,  and  he  flung  himself  with  ardor 
into  the  noisy  campaign  of  1840. 

In  1842  he  had  his  "  duel "  with  James  T.  Shields,  and 
later  had  the  good  sense  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 

In  1846  he  ran  for  Congress,  and  at  this  third  attempt 
was  elected,  taking  his  seat  December  6,  1847,  an(^  continuing 
for  two  years. 

The  slavery  issue  was  becoming  dominant.  Lincoln  was 
not  at  the  outset  an  abolitionist,  and  was  unwilling  to  be 
placed  in  a  position  where  he  would  be  compelled  to  imperil 
his  political  chances  by  taking  too  definite  a  stand  on  this 
divisive  measure;  but  on  March  3,  1837,  he  introduced  into 
the  Legislature  a  vigorous  protest  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  pro-slavery  party,  a  protest  which  probably  failed  to  affect 
his  political  future  because  it  contained  only  one  signature 
beside  his  own.  Only  a  few  months  later  occurred  the 
martyrdom  of  Owen  Love  joy  at  Alton,  and  the  slavery  issue 
was  no  longer  one  to  be  kept  in  the  background.  It  is  good 
to  be  able  to  remember  that  Lincoln's  first  protest  against 
it  was  recorded  before  it  had  become  so  burning  an  issue.  He 
himself  dated  his  hostility  to  slavery  to  what  he  saw  of  a 
slave  market  in  New  Orleans  when  he  visited  that  city  as  a 
boat  hand.  But  he  was  unable  to  remember  a  time  when  he 
had  not  believed  that  slavery  was  wrong. 

On  other  moral  questions  he  now  began  to  speak.  He 
delivered  an  address  on  Temperance  on  Washington's  Birth 
day  in  1842.  His  first  notable  oratorical  flight  outside  the 
spheres  of  politics  and  law  was  delivered  before  the  Young 
Men's  Lyceum  of  Springfield  on  January  27,  1837,  and  was 
on  "The  Perpetuation  of  Our  Political  Institutions."  It 
took  him  longer  to  say  it  than  it  did  at  Gettysburg,  and  it 
was  not  so  well  said,  but  the  rather  florid  lecture  was  intended 
to  mean  essentially  the  same  thing  which  he  later  expressed 
much  more  simply  and  effectively. 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD       73 

His  most  important  case  that  had  a  bearing  on  the  slavery 
issue  was  that  of  Bailey  vs.  Cromwell,  when  he  was  thirty- 
two  years  of  age.  In  preparing  to  argue  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Illinois  in  favor  of  the  freedom  of  a  slave  girl, 
he  learned  the  legal  aspects  of  the  question  which  later  he  was 
to  decide  on  its  military  and  ethical  character. 

In  1858  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the  United 
States  Senate  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  conducted  that 
series  of  debates  which  made  him  known  throughout  the 
nation  as  the  champion  of  freedom  in  the  territories,  and  of 
the  faith  that  the  nation  could  not  forever  endure  half  slave 
and  half  free.  In  the  autumn  of  1859  he  visited  Kansas,  and 
was  hailed  as  the  friend  of  freedom. 

On  Tuesday  evening,  February  27,  1860,  he  delivered  an 
address  in  Cooper  Union  in  New  York  City,  an  address 
which  greatly  extended  his  fame.  On  the  preceding  Sunday 
he  attended  Plymouth  Church  and  heard  and  met  Henry 
Ward  Beecher. 

On  May  16,  1860,  he  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States  by  a  great  convention  meeting  in  a 
temporary  structure  known  as  "  the  Wigwam "  standing 
on  Lake  and  Market  Streets  near  the  junction  of  the  two 
branches'  of  Chicago  River.  On  November  7,  1860,  he  was 
elected  President. 

On  Friday,  November  4,  1842,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Mary  Todd.  She  was  born  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  Decem 
ber  13,  1818,  and  had  come  to  Springfield  to  be  with  her 
sister,  Mrs.  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  in  whose  home  the  marriage 
occurred.  Concerning  this  marriage  and  the  events  which 
went  before  and  after,  much  has  been  written  and  nothing 
need  here  be  repeated. 

When  Lincoln  arrived  in  Springfield,  he  found  himself 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life  living  in  a  town  with  churches 
that  held  service  every  Sunday,  and  each  church  under  the 
care  of  its  own  minister.  Springfield  had  several  churches, 
and  he  did  not  at  first  attend  any  of  them.  This  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  on  account  of  any  hostility  which  he  enter 
tained  toward  them,  but  his  first  months  in  Springfield  were 


74    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

months  of  great  loneliness  and  depression.  He  was  keenly 
conscious  of  his  poverty  and  of  his  social  disqualifications. 
He  was  still  tortured  by  his  unhappy  love  affair  with  Mary 
Owens.  More  than  a  year  after  his  arrival  in  Springfield 
he  wrote  to  her  that  he  had  not  yet  attended  church  and 
giving  as  the  reason  that  he  would  not  know  how  to  behave 
himself : 

"  This  thing  of  living  in  Springfield  is  rather  a  dull  busi 
ness,  after  all ;  at  least,  it  is  so  to  me.  I  am  quite  as  lonesome 
here  as  I  ever  was  anywhere  in  my  life.  I  have  been  spoken 
to  by  but  one  woman  since  I  have  been  here,  and  should  not 
have  been  by  her  if  she  could  have  avoided  it.  I  have  never 
been  to  church  yet,  nor  probably  shall  not  be  soon.  I  stay 
away  because  I  am  conscious  I  should  not  know  how  to  behave 
myself.  I  am  often  thinking  about  what  we  said  of  your 
coming  to  live  at  Springfield.  I  am  afraid  you  would  not  be 
satisfied.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing  about  in  car 
riages  here,  which  it  would  be  your  doom  to  see  without  shar 
ing  it.  You  would  have  to  be  poor,  without  the  means  of 
hiding  your  poverty.  " 

Lincoln's  habit  with  respect  to  churchgoing  underwent 
no  very  marked  improvement  after  his  marriage  until  the  year 
1850.  He  came,  however,  to  know  a  number  of  ministers  2 
and  to  sustain  somewhat  pleasant  relations  with  some  of 
them. 

Mary  Todd  had  been  reared  a  Presbyterian.     For  a  time 

2  Mr.  Barker,  the  bookseller  and  publisher  of  Springfield,  has  or 
had  an  interesting  item  in  a  volume  which  Mr.  Lincoln  presented  to 
Rev.  William  A.  Chapin,  a  returned  missionary,  who  lived  with  the 
family  of  his  relative,  Albert  Hale.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  on  close  terms 
with  "  Father  Hale "  and  a  friend  of  Mr.  Chapin.  The  book  is  one 
volume,  the  others  being  lost,  of  a  set  entitled  "  Horae  Solitariae;  or, 
Essays  on  Some  Remarkable  Names  and  Titles  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
First  American  from  the  Second  London  Edition.  Philadelphia :  Cochran 
&  McLoughlan,  1801."  The  book  bears  no  name  of  author.  Upon  the 
flyleaf  is  the  autograph  of  Mr.  Chapin  in  these  words,  "William  A. 
Chapin,  1844.  A  present  from  Abr.  Lincoln."  How  Lincoln  obtained  the 
book  is  not  known;  nor  is  it  one  for  which  he  would  have  been  likely 
to  care.  But  he  cared  enough  for  the  book  or  for  the  missionary  or  for 
both  to  present  the  one  to  the  other.  His  aversion  to  ministers,  which 
Lampn  portrays,  may  have  had  some  reason  in  certain  cases;  but  it  was 
not  inclusive  of  all  ministers  nor  of  ministers  as  a  class. 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD      75 

after  her  marriage  she  attended  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  On  February  i,  i85o,3  their  second  son, 
Edward  Baker  Lincoln,  died.  The  little  boy  was  between 
three  and  four  years  old.  The  rector  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
was  absent  from  the  city  and  the  funeral  service  was  con 
ducted  by  Rev.  James  Smith,  D.D.,  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  A  friendship  was  established  between  them,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  took  a  pew  in  Dr.  Smith's  church  and  he  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln  attended  there  regularly. 

In  a  later  chapter  we  shall  have  occasion  to  consider  more 
directly  and  at  length  the  influence  of  Dr.  Smith  upon  Mr. 
Lincoln.  We  now  confine  ourselves  to  the  fact  that  Lincoln 
now  became  a  church  attendant  under  the  ministry  of  a 
preacher  quite  different  from  any  he  had  previously  known. 

James  Smith  was  a  large  and  stalwart  Scotchman.  He  is 
described  as  Websterian  in  appearance  and  in  the  strength 
of  logical  argument.  Lamon  speaks  of  him  in  contemptuous 
phrase  which  reflects  little  credit  upon  Lamon,  describing  him 

3  I  have  been  at  much  trouble  to  get  the  exact  name  and  dates  of 
this  little  boy.  He  was  called  Eddie,  and  the  name  is  sometimes  given 
Edwin  and  sometimes  Edward,  and  I  did  not  find  it  easy  to  learn,  even 
at  the  monument  at  Springfield,  the  exact  date  of  his  death.  He  was 
named  for  his  father's  friend,  and  associate  in  the  Legislature,  Edward 
Baker.  He  was  born  March  10,  1846,  and  died  February  i,  1850.  Lin 
coln's  children  were:  Robert  Todd,  born  August  i,  1843,  still  living; 
Edward  Baker,  born  March  10,  1846,  died  in  Springfield  February  i, 
1850;  William  Wallace,  born  December  21,  1850,  died  in  the  White  House 
February  20,  1862 ;  Thomas  or  "  Tad,"  born  April  4,  1853 ;  died  in  Chicago, 
July  15,  1871.  Mary  Todd  Lincoln,  their  mother,  was  born  in  Lexington, 
Kentucky,  December  13,  1818;  married  Abraham  Lincoln,  November  4, 
1842,  and  died  in  Springfield  July  16,  1882. 

The  date  of  the  death  of  Eddie  is  important,  because  it  gives  us 
a  terminus  a  quern  for  Lincoln's  acquaintance  with  Rev.  James  Smith. 
Dr.  Smith  gives  the  date  as  "  in  the  latter  part  of  1849."  I  sought  in 
vain  not  only  in  published  Lives  of  Lincoln  but  in  the  material  on  file 
with  the  State  Historical  Society  for  the  precise  date.  What  is  more 
surprising,  Colonel  Johnson,  custodian  of  the  Lincoln  tomb,  has  made 
diligent  search  for  me  and  cannot  find  the  date.  In  an  article,  prepared 
for  the  Lincoln  Centenary  in  1909,  Rev.  Thomas  D.  Logan,  D.D.,  then 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Springfield  which  Lincoln  attended  and  successor 
of  Dr.  Smith,  said  it  was  "about  1848  or  1849";  but  in  working  over 
the  material,  as  he  manifestly  did,  after  furnishing  it  to  The  Interior. 
in  which  it  was  printed,  and  delivering  the  substance  of  it  as  a  centenary 
address,  he  gives  the  date  as  February  i,  1850.  This  I  judge  to  be  correct, 
and  it  is  upon  his  authority  I  have  given  that  date  above.  The  other  dates 
of  the  Lincoln  family's  relation  to  this  church  support  this  statement. 


76     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

as  a  man  of  slender  ability.  Whatever  Dr.  Smith  was,  he 
was  not  a  man  of  meager  intellectual  power.  He  had  a 
massive  mind  and  one  well  trained.  He  had  a  voice  of  great 
carrying  power  and  was  accustomed  to  speaking  to  large 
congregations  both  indoors  and  out.  He  was  a  wide  reader 
and  a  skilled  controversialist.  In  his  own  young  manhood 
he  had  been  a  deist,  and  when  he  was  converted  he  entered 
with  great  ardor  into  various  discussions  with  men  who 
opposed  the  Christian  faith.  One  such  discussion  he  had 
engaged  in  with  a  widely  known  infidel  author.  The  debate 
had  continued  evening  after  evening  in  a  Southern  city  for 
nearly  three  weeks  and  Dr.  Smith  had  emerged  from  it  tri 
umphant. 

Dr.  Smith  was  just  the  kind  of  man  to  win  the  admiration 
of  Lincoln  at  that  time.  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that 
Dr.  Smith's  three  weeks'  debate  with  C.  G.  Olmsted  at 
Columbus,  Mississippi,  suggested  to  Lincoln  the  idea  of  his 
debate  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

That  Lincoln's  views  underwent  some  change  at  this  time 
there  is  the  best  reason  to  believe.  Lincoln  himself  declared 
to  his  brother-in-law,  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  that  his  views  had 
been  modified. 

Lamon  and  Herndon  both  seek  to  represent  Dr.  Smith 
as  an  officious,  self-advertising  meddler,  who  sought  to  win 
renown  for  himself  by  proclaiming  Mr.  Lincoln's  conversion 
through  his  personal  influence.  The  claims  and  conduct  of 
Dr.  Smith  do  not  seem  to  merit  any  such  rebuke.  Whatever 
Dr.  Smith  claimed,  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  about  it  and  was  not 
offended  by  it.  Subsequently  he  appointed  Dr.  Smith's  son 
United  States  Consul  to  Dundee,  Scotland,  and  on  the  son's 
return  to  the  United  States  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  his  father, 
who  by  that  time  had  retired  from  the  ministry,  to  succeed 
him  in  that  position.  Even  Lamon  is  compelled  to  admit 
that  Dr.  Smith's  claims  were  made  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  knowl 
edge,  and  says: 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  permitted  himself  to  be  misunderstood  and 
misrepresented  by  some  enthusiastic  ministers  and  exhorters 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD       77 

with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  Among  these  was  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Smith,  then  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Springfield,  and  afterward  consul  at  Dundee,  in  Scotland, 
under  Mr.  Lincoln's  appointment." — LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln, 
p.  498. 

This  statement  is  thoroughly  discreditable,  and  that  which 
follows  in  Lamon's  account  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  relations  with 
Dr.  Smith  is  a  thorough  misrepresentation,  as  we  shall  later 
discover.  Lamon  was  not  a  deliberate  liar;  neither  was  he 
in  this  matter  free  from  prejudice;  and  he  wrote  with  reck 
less  disregard  of  some  facts  which  he  did  not  know  but  ought 
to  have  known,  and  which  the  reader  of  this  book  shall  know. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  received  word  that  his  own 
father  was  dying,  and  was  prevented  from  making  him  a  per 
sonal  visit,  which,  apparently,  he  was  not  wholly  sorry  for. 
On  January  12,  1851,  he  wrote  to  his  stepbrother,  John  D. 
Johnson : 

"  I  sincerely  hope  father  may  recover  his  health,  but,  tell 
him  to  remember  to  call  upon  and  confide  in  our  great  and 
good  and  merciful  Maker,  who  will  not  turn  away  from  him 
in  any  extremity.  He  notes  the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  and  num 
bers  the  hairs  of  our  head,  and  He  will  not  forget  the  dying 
man  who  puts  his  trust  in  Him.  Say  to  him  that  if  we  could 
meet  now  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  would  not  be  more  painful 
than  pleasant,  but  that  if  it  be  his  lot  to  go  now,  he  will  soon 
have  a  joyous  meeting  with  many  loved  ones  gone  before,  and 
where  the  rest  of  us,  through  the  help  of  God,  hope  ere  long 
to  join  them/' 

Even  Herndon  grew  indignant  when  anyone  attempted 
to  explain  away  that  letter,  or  to  make  it  seem  anything  less 
than  it  purported  to  be.  He  said  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Abbott, 
under  date  of  February  18,  1870: 

"  It  has  been  said  to  me  that  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  the  above 
letter  to  an  old  man  simply  to  cheer  him  up  in  his  last  moments, 
and  that  the  writer  did  not  believe  what  he  said.  The  question 


78    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

is,  Was  Mr.  Lincoln  an  honest  and  truthful  man?  If  he  was, 
he  wrote  that  letter  honestly,  believing  it.  It  has  to  me  the 
sound,  the  ring,  of  an  honest  utterance.  I  admit  that  Mr. 
Lincoln,  in  his  moments  of  melancholy  and  terrible  gloom, 
was  living  on  the  border  land  between  theism  and  atheism, 
sometimes  quite  wholly  dwelling  in  atheism.  In  his  happier 
moments  he  would  swing  back  to  theism,  and  dwell  lovingly 
there.  .  .  .  So  it  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Lincoln  believed 
in  God  and  immortality  as  well  as  heaven — a  place."- — LAMON, 
P-  495- 

Another  incident  comes  to  us  from  this  period  and  is 
related  by  Captain  Gilbert  J.  Greene.  He  was  a  young  printer 
living  in  Springfield,  and  at  the  time  of  this  incident  was 
eighteen  years  of  age.  Whether  the  story  was  in  any  way 
exaggerated  we  may  not  certainly  know,  but  it  is  here  given 
as  he  himself  furnished  it  for  publication  and  is  now  printed 
with  one  or  two  other  Lincoln  stories  in  a  small  volume  in 
limited  edition : 

" '  Greene/  said  Lincoln  to  him  one  day  on  the  streets 
of  Springfield,  l  I've  got  to  ride  out  into  the  country  tomorrow 
to  draw  a  will  for  a  woman  who  is  believed  to  be  on  her 
deathbed.  I  may  want  you  for  a  witness.  If  you  haven't 
anything  else  to  do  I'd  like  to  have  you  go  along.' 

'  The  invitation  was  promptly  accepted. 

"  On  the  way  to  the  farmhouse  the  lawyer  and  the  printer 
chatted  delightfully,  cementing  a  friendship  that  was  fast 
ripening  into  real  affection.  Arriving  at  the  house,  the  woman 
was  found  to  be  near  her  end. 

"  With  great  gentleness  Lincoln  drew  up  the  document 
disposing  of  the  property  as  the  woman  desired.  Neighbors 
and  relatives  were  present,  making  it  unnecessary  to  call  on 
Greene  to  witness  the  instrument.  After  the  signing  and 
witnessing  of  the  will  the  woman  turned  to  Lincoln  and  said, 
with  a  smile : 

1  Now  I  have  my  affairs  for  this  world  arranged  satis 
factorily.  I  am  thankful  to  say  that  long  before  this  I  have 
made  preparation  for  the  other  life  I  am  so  soon  to  enter. 
Many  years  ago  I  sought  and  found  Christ  as  my  Saviour. 
He  has  been  my  stay  and  comfort  through  the  years,  and  is 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD      79 

now  near  to  carry  me  over  the  river  of  death.  I  do  not  fear 
death,  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  am  really  glad  that  my  time  has  come, 
for  loved  ones  have  gone  before  me  and  I  rejoice  in  the 
hope  of  meeting  them  so  soon.' 

"  Instinctively  the  friends  drew  nearer  the  bedside.  As 
the  dying  woman  had  addressed  her  words  more  directly  to 
Lincoln  than  to  the  others,  Lincoln,  evincing  sympathy  in 
every  look  and  gesture,  bent  toward  her  and  said : 

"  *  Your  faith  in  Christ  is  wise  and  strong;  your  hope  of  a 
future  life  is  blessed.  You  are  to  be  congratulated  in  passing 
through  life  so  usefully,  and  into  the  life  beyond  so  hopefully.' 

"  *  Mr.  Lincoln/  said  she,  '  won't  you  read  a  few  verses 
out  of  the  Bible  for  me  ?  ' 

"  A  member  of  the  family  offered  him  the  family  Bible. 
Instead  of  taking  it,  he  began  reciting  from  memory  the 
twenty-third  Psalm,  laying  emphasis  upon  '  Though  I  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  I  will  fear  no  evil, 
for  thou  art  with  me;  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me.' 
Still  without  referring  to  the  Bible,  Lincoln  began  with  the 
first  part  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John : 

"  *  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled ;  ye  believe  in  God,  believe 
also  in  me. 

" '  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions;  if  it  were 
not  so,  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you. 

"  '  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come 
again,  and  receive  you  unto  myself;  that  where  I  am,  there 
ye  may  be  also.' 

"  After  he  had  given  these  and  other  quotations  from  the 
Scriptures,  he  recited  various  familiar  comforting  hymns, 
closing  with  '  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me/  Then,  with  a  ten 
derness  and  pathos  that  enthralled  everyone  in  the  room,  he 
spoke  the  last  stanza — 

" '  While  I  draw  this  fleeting  breath, 
When  mine  eyes  shall  close  in  death, 
When  I  rise  to  worlds  unknown, 
See  Thee  on  Thy  judgment  throne, 
Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee.3 

"While  Lincoln  was  reciting  this  stanza  a  look  of  peace 
and  resignation  lit  up  the  countenance  of  the  dying  woman. 


80    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

In  a  few  minutes  more,  while  the  lawyer  and  the  printer  were 
there,  she  passed  away. 

"  The  journey  back  to  Springfield  was  begun  in  silence. 
It  was  the  younger  man  who  finally  said : 

"  *  Mr.  Lincoln,  ever  since  what  has  just  happened  back 
there  in  the  farmhouse,  I  have  been  thinking  that  it  is  very 
extraordinary  that  you  should  so  perfectly  have  acted  as 
pastor  as  well  as  attorney.' 

"  When  the  answer  to  this  suggestion  finally  was  given — 
and  it  was  not  given  at  once — Lincoln  said : 

"  '  God,  and  Eternity,  and  Heaven  were  very  near  to  me 
today/ " — CHARLES  T.  WHITE,  Lincoln  the  Comforter, 
pp.  11-16. 

Reference  should  be  made  in  our  review  of  this  period  to 
Lincoln's  stories  as  exhibiting  an  important  phase  of  his 
character. 

It  is  not  easy  to  decide  what  stories  actually  were  Lin 
coln's.  Very  few  of  them  are  to  be  found  in  their  original 
setting,  for  he  did  not  commonly  tell  stories  when  he  made 
speeches.  They  were  told  in  personal  interviews,  in  hours  of 
recreation,  and  especially  in  taverns  and  other  loafing  places. 
The  period  of  their  greatest  vogue  was  that  in  which  Lincoln 
traveled  the  circuit.  Most  of  the  successful  lawyers  of  that 
day  were  story-tellers;  and  in  the  evenings  of  court-week  they 
swapped  yarns  with  local  Wits.  Lincoln  was  the  most  famous 
of  a  considerable  group  of  noted  Illinois  story-tellers. 

During  his  lifetime  he  was  asked  about  how  many  of  the 
stories  attributed  to  him  were  his  own,  and  he  said  he  thought 
about  half.  A  much  larger  discount  would  need  to  be  made 
now.  Many  such  stories  Lincoln  probably  never  heard. 

The  stories  which  lawyers  told  to  each  other  and  to  groups 
of  men  were  not  all  of  them  overnice;  and  Lincoln's  stories 
were  like  the  rest.  He  did  not  always  confine  himself  to 
strictly  proper  stories.  But  in  those  that  are  authentic  and  not 
quite  proper,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  coarseness  was  inci 
dental  to  the  real  point  of  the  story.  I  have  not  heard  any 
story,  authenticated  as  Lincoln's,  which  is  actually  obscene. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  examine  a  considerable  quan- 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD       81 

tity  of  unpublished  writing  of  Lincoln's,  including  some  manu 
scripts  that  have  been  withheld  for  the  reason  that  they  were 
not  quite  proper.  Of  these  I  can  say  that  they  are  few  in 
number,  and  that  the  element  of  vulgarity  is  very  small. 
Excepting  only  the  "  First  Chronicles  of  Reuben,"  which  was 
a  rude  backwoods  joke,  written  in  his  boyhood,  and  in  full 
accord  with  the  standards  of  humor  current  in  the  time  and 
general  environment,  there  is  not  very  much  that  one  could 
wish  had  been  destroyed. 

The  frankest  piece  of  questionable  literature  from  Lin 
coln's  pen  in  mature  years,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  is  in  a  private 
collection,  and  its  owner  does  not  permit  it  to  be  copied.  Not 
many  people  are  permitted  to  see  it.  It  is  probably  the  least 
attractive  scrap  of  Lincoln's  writing  extant  that  dates  from 
his  mature  years.  It  is  undated,  but  belongs  to  the  period  of 
his  life  on  the  circuit.  It  is  a  piece  of  extravagant  nonsense, 
written  in  about  twenty  lines  on  a  quarter  sheet  of  legal  cap, 
and  is  probably  the  effort  to  recall  and  record  something  that 
he  had  heard  and  which  amused  him.  Its  whole  point  is  in 
the  transposition  of  the  initial  letters  of  compound  words,  or 
words  in  juxtaposition  in  a  sentence,  such  as  a  speaker  some 
times  makes  in  a  moment  of  mental  confusion.  Thus  a 
cotton-patch  is  a  "  potten-catch "  and  a  fence-corner  is  a 
"  cence-forner."  Every  clause  contains  one  or  more  of  these 
absurdities,  until  a  sense  of  boisterous  mirth  is  awakened  at 
the  possibility  that  there  should  be  so  many  of  them.  Most  of 
them  are  harmless  as  the  two  above  quoted,  but  there  are  two 
or  three  that  are  not  in  good  taste.  They  are  not  vile  nor 
obscene,  but  not  very  pretty.  Lincoln  wasted  ten  minutes  of 
spare  time  in  writing  out  this  rather  ingenious  bit  of  non 
sense,  and  it  is  not  worth  more  than  that  length  of  discussion. 
It  is  probably  the  worst  bit  of  extant  writing  of  Lincoln's 
mature  years,  written  in  the  period  of  his  circuit-riding,  and 
it  has  little  to  commend  it  and  not  a  great  deal  to  condemn. 

Lincoln's  religious  life  in  Springfield  has  been  and  is 
the  subject  of  violent  controversy.  Much  that  has  been  writ 
ten  on  both  sides  bears  the  marks  of  prejudice  and  exhibits 


82     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

internal  evidence  of  having  been  consciously  or  unconsciously 
distorted.  In  a  later  chapter  it  will  come  before  us  for 
review  and  analysis.  Of  it  we  may  now  remind  ourselves 
that  in  this  period  covering  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century 
Lincoln  was  developing  in  many  ways.  He  emerged  from 
grinding  poverty  into  a  condition  in  which  he  owned  a  home 
and  had  a  modest  sum  of  money  in  the  bank.  From  an  ill- 
trained  fledgling  lawyer,  compelled  by  his  poverty  to  share 
a  bed  in  a  friend's  room  above  the  store,  he  had  come  to  be  a 
leader  at  the  Illinois  bar.  From  an  obscure  figure  in  State 
politics  he  had  come  to  be  the  recognized  leader  of  a  political 
party  that  was  destined  "to  achieve  national  success  and  to 
determine  the  policies  of  the  nation  with  little  interruption 
for  more  than  half  a  century.  Out  of  a  condition  of  great 
mental  uncertainty  in  all  matters  relating  to  domestic  relations 
he  had  come  into  a  settled  condition  as  the  husband  of  a  bril 
liant  and  ambitious  woman  and  the  father  of  a  family  of 
sons  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached.  For  the  first  time 
in  his  life  he  lived  in  a  community  where  there  were  buildings 
wholly  dedicated  to  the  purposes  of  public  worship ;  and  after 
a  considerable  period  of  non-church  attendance,  and  perhaps 
another  of  infrequent  or  irregular  attendance,  he  had  become 
a  regular  attendant  and  supporter  of  a  church  whose  minister 
was  his  personal  friend  and  whom  he  greatly  admired. 

During  his  years  in  Springfield,  Mr.  Lincoln's  political 
ideals  had  undergone  marked  change.  His  experience  in  the 
Illinois  Legislature  is  not  discreditable;  neither  does  it  manifest 
any  notably  high  ideals.  Nor  was  he  brilliantly  successful  in 
his  one  term  in  Congress.  Lincoln  was  an  honest  politician, 
in  the  sense  that  he  kept  his  promises  and  stood  by  his  an 
nounced  convictions.  But  it  is  impossible  to  read  into  his 
legislative  history  any  such  lofty  purpose  as  later  possessed 
him.  He  and  the  other  members  of  the  "  Long  Nine  "  log 
rolled  in  orthodox  political  fashion,  and  won  from  Governor 
Ford  the  title  "  spared  monuments  of  popular  wrath."  4 

4  Governor  Ford  uses  this  term  as  inclusive  of  the  "  Long  Nine " 
and  their  associates  who  voted  for  the  combination  of  evils  which 
brought  financial  disaster  to  Illinois  in  that  early  day.  Among  them  were 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Abraham  Lincoln,  John  A.  McClernand,  and  James 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD      83 

As  a  jury  lawyer,  also,  his  arts  were  those  of  the  successful 
trial  lawyer  of  the  period.  So  far  as  the  author  has  been 
able  to  find,  there  was  no  unworthy  chapter  in  all  this  long 
history.  The  story,  for  instance,  that  in  the  trial  of  Arm 
strong  Lincoln  used  an  almanac  of  another  year  and  won  his 
case  by  fraud,  has,  as  the  author  is  convinced,  no  foundation 
whatever  in  fact.  On  the  contrary,  Lincoln  was  at  a  serious 
disadvantage  in  any  case  in  whose  justice  he  did  not  fully 
believe. 

But  there  came  a  time  when  Lincoln  was  more  than  a 
shrewd  and  honest  politician;  more  than  a  successful  jury 
lawyer.  In  the  brief  autobiographical  sketch  which  he  pre 
pared  for  Mr.  Fell,  he  speaks  of  his  work  at  the  end  of  his 
term  in  Congress,  and  says : 

"  In  1846  I  was  once  elected  to  the  lower  House  of  Con 
gress.  Was  not  a  candidate  for  re-election.  From  1849  to 
1854,  both  inclusive,  practiced  law  more  assiduously  than  ever 
before.  Always  a  Whig  in  politics,  and  generally  on  the 
Whig  electoral  tickets,  making  active  canvasses,  I  was  losing 
interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  aroused  me  again.  What  I  have  done  since  is  pretty 
well  known." 

He  expanded  this  brief  statement  somewhat  in  the  sketch 
which  he  furnished  a  little  later  to  Scripps  as  a  basis  of  his 
campaign  biography: 

"  Upon  his  return  from  Congress,  he  went  to  the  practice 
of  the  law  with  greater  earnestness  than  ever  before.  .  .  . 
In  1854  his  profession  had  almost  superseded  the  thought  of 
politics  in  his  mind,  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  aroused  him  as  he  had  never  been  before." 

The  full  effect  of  this  unprecedented  arousing  was  manifest 
in  his  speech  at  Springfield  on  June  16,  1858,  the  "  House- 
Divided- Against-Itself  "  speech. 

Shields — "  all  of  them  spared  monuments  of  popular  wrath,  evincing  how 
safe  it  is  to  be  a  politician,  but  how  disastrous  it  may  be  to  the  country 
to  keep  along  with  the  present  fervor  of  the  people."  FORD:  History  of 
Illinois. 


84     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Lincoln  himself  is  our  authority  for  the  statement  that 
the  moral  aspects  of  the  slavery  issue  called  him  back  into 
politics  and  roused  him  as  he  never  before  had  been  aroused. 
Politically,  at  least,  Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  born  again. 
Nor  had  it  been  a  period  of  spiritual  inaction  or  retrogression, 
as  we  have  seen  and  shall  see  yet  further. 

In  addition  to  all  this  he  had  known  the  discipline  of 
sorrow,  and  had  had  occasion  to  test  religion  on  the  practical 
side  of  its  availability  for  comfort  in  time  of  bereavement. 
He  had  now  been  chosen  to  a  position  of  responsibility  such 
as  no  man  in  all  the  history  of  his  nation  had  ever  been  called 
upon  to  occupy. 

On  the  day  before  he  was  fifty-two  years  old  he  stood 
upon  the  platform  of  a  railroad  train  ready  to  leave  Spring 
field  for  the  last  time.  He  did  not  know  that  it  was  the  last 
time,  but  he  had  a  haunting  presentiment  that  it  might  be  so. 
With  tears  filling  his  eyes  and  in  a  voice  choked  with  emotion 
he  spoke  his  last  words  to  his  neighbors  and  friends.  Just 
what  he  said  we  shall  never  know.  A  shorthand  reporter 
endeavored  to  write  it  down,  but  with  indifferent  success. 
Hon.  Newton  Bateman,  State  Superintendent  of  Schools,  of 
whom  we  shall  hear  later,  hurried  to  his  office  after  the  train 
pulled  out  and  wrote  down  what,  judged  by  any  reasonable 
test,  must  be  considered  a  very  satisfactory  report  of  it. 
Lincoln  sat  down  in  the  train  after  it  had  left  Springfield  and 
endeavored  to  recall  the  exact  language  which  he  had  used, 
and  in  this  was  assisted  by  his  private  secretary,  John  Hay. 
Of  these  three,  and  a  considerable  number  of  other  versions, 
the  Illinois  Historical  Society  has  chosen  the  third  as  the 
authentic  version.  It  represents  what  Lincoln  wished  to  be 
remembered  as  having  said,  and  very  nearly  what  he  actually 
did  say.  This  version  of  his  farewell  address,  representing 
the  deep  feeling  of  his  heart  at  the  hour  of  parting,  and 
recorded  on  the  same  day  as  embodying  his  deliberate  revision 
of  the  extempore  utterance,  is  taken  from  Nicolay  and  Hay's 
edition  of  his  Life  and  of  his  Works.  It  is  that  which  was 
cast  in  bronze  and  placed  in  the  year  of  his  Centennial,  in 
front  of  the  State  House  at  Springfield.  If  one  would  meas- 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  SPRINGFIELD      85 

ure  the  growth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  intellectually  and  spirit 
ually  he  might  ask,  What  kind  of  an  address  in  comparison 
with  this  Lincoln  might  have  delivered  on  his  departure  from 
Kentucky  in  1816,  from  Indiana  in  1830,  or  from  New  Salem 
in  1837?  The  answer  is  so  emphatic  as  almost  to  make  the 
question  absurd;  but  it  is  worth  while  to  ask  the  question 
before  we  read  again  the  familiar  words  of  his  farewell 
address.  No  one  reading  these  few  sentences  can  question 
the  sincerity  of  Lincoln's  utterance  or  the  depth  of  his  religious 
feeling : 

"  My  friends :  No  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  appreciate 
my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place,  and  the 
kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything.  Here  I  have 
lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  passed  from  a  youth 
to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children  have  been  born,  and  one  is 
buried.  I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I 
may  return,  with  the  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which 
rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that 
Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him  I  cannot  succeed.  With 
that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him,  who  can  go 
with  me,  and  remain  with  you  and  be  everywhere  for  good, 
let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To  His  care 
commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend 
me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." — NICOLAY  AND  HAY, 
III,  291.  " 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN 
WASHINGTON 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  inaugurated  sixteenth  president  of 
the  United  States,  on  Monday,  March  4,  1861.  His  journey 
to  Washington  had  served  to  impress  him  even  more  deeply 
than  before  with  a  sense  of  the  solemnity  of  his  task.  He 
still  was  earnestly  hoping,  and  if  we  may  judge  from  his 
speeches  along  the  route,  even  expecting,  that  war  would  be 
averted;  *  but  the  possibility  of  war  was  always  apparent  and 
its  probability  was  growing  daily  more  certain. 

Several  incidents  are  related  tending  to  show  the  solemnity 
of  Lincoln's  feeling  at  this  time.  Some  of  them  are  plainly 
apocryphal,  but  others  are  deeply  significant.  The  following 
was  related  by  Rev.  Dr.  Miner,  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Springfield,  who  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
Lincoln  family  and  who  visited  them  in  the  White  House. 
This  story  he  declared  was  related  to  him  by  Mrs.  Lincoln 
on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  White  House  and  was  pub 
lished  while  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  still  living.  It  appears  to  rest 
upon  a  sound  basis  of  fact : 

"  Here  I  relate  an  incident  which  occurred  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1861,  as  told  me  by  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Said  she: 

" '  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  the  conclusion  of  his  inaugural  ad 
dress  the  morning  it  was  delivered.  The  family  being  present, 
he  read  it  to  them.  He  then  said  he  wished  to  be  left  alone  for 
a  short  time.  The  family  retired  to  an  adjoining  room,  but  not 
so  far  distant  but  that  the  voice  of  prayer  could  be  distinctly 
heard.  There,  closeted  with  God  alone,  surrounded  by  the 
enemies  who  were  ready  to  take  his  life,  he  commended  his 

1 A  careful  reading  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  speeches  while  en  route  for 
Washington  will  reveal,  I  think,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  confident  there 
would  be  no  war.  A  much  more  solemn  note  was  in  his  First  Inaugural, 
a  few  days  later. 

86 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON       87 

country's  cause  and  all  dear  to  him  to  God's  providential  care, 
and  with  a  mind  calmed  by  communion  with  his  Father  in 
heaven,  and  courage  equal  to  the  danger,  he  came  forth  from 
that  retirement  ready  for  duty.'  " — Scribner's  Monthly f  1873, 
P-  343- 

Fort  Sumter  fell  April  13,  and  on  the  I5th  Lincoln  issued 
his  call  for  volunteers,  and  called  Congress  in  extraordinary 
session  for  July  4.  On  July  21  occurred  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run,  and  the  war  settled  down  to  its  weary  and  varying  for 
tunes.  On  September  22,  1862,  he  issued  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  to  take  effect  January  i,  1863.  The  battle  of 
Gettysburg  occurred  July  1-4,  1863,  and  destroyed  the  hope 
of  the  Southern  Army  of  a  successful  invasion  of  the  North. 
Simultaneously  with  Lee's  defeat  at  Gettysburg,  General  Grant 
captured  Vicksburg,  opening  the  Mississippi  to  the  Union  gun 
boats.  On  November  19,  1863,  Lincoln  delivered  his  Gettys 
burg  address.  On  March  4,  1865,  he  was  inaugurated  Presi 
dent  a  second  time.  On  Sunday,  April  9,  1865,  General  Lee 
surrendered  his  army  at  Appomattox.  On  Friday  night,  April 
14,  at  10 :2O  P.M.,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  shot  in  Ford's  Theater 
and  died  on  Saturday  morning,  April  15,  at  7 :22.  On  Thurs 
day,  May  4,  his  body  was  interred  at  Oak  Ridge  Cemetery  in 
Springfield. 

During  his  residence  in  Washington,  Mr.  Lincoln  habit 
ually  attended  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church. 
He  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  the  pastor,  Rev.  Phineas  D. 
Gurley,  D.D.,  whose  grandson,  Captain  Gurley  of  the  War 
Department,  relates  that  Lincoln  sat  with  Dr.  Gurley  on  the 
rear  porch  of  the  White  House  during  the  second  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  and  when  the  strain  had  become  almost  unbearable 
he  knelt  in  prayer  and  Mr.  Lincoln  knelt  beside  him  and  joined 
reverently  in  the  petition.  Dr.  Gurley's  testimonies  to  the 
religious  development  of  Lincoln's  life  were  conservative,  and 
bear  upon  their  face  marks  of  trustworthiness.  There  are  no 
extravagant  claims;  no  florid  and  declamatory  theological 
affirmations,2  but  such  as  this  which  Dr.  Gurley  remember^ 

2  Even  Herndon  commends  Dr.  Gurley  and  Bishop  Simpson  for  their 
very  conservative  claims  concerning  the  religion  of  Lincoln. 


88     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

to  have  heard  Lincoln  say  to  a  company  of  clergymen  calling 
upon  him  in  one  of  the  darkest  times  in  the  Civil  War: 

"  My  hope  of  success  in  this  struggle  rests  on  that  im 
mutable  foundation,  the  justness  and  the  goodnesa  of  God; 
and  when  events  are  very  threatening  I  still  hope  that  in  some 
way  all  will  be  well  in  the  end,  because  our  cause  is  just  and 
God  will  be  on  our  side." — Scribner's  Magazine,  1873,  p.  339. 

Lincoln  sometimes  varied  this  form  of  expression  and  said 
that  he  was  less  anxious  to  proclaim  that  God  was  on  his  side 
than  he  was  to  be  sure  that  he  was  on  God's  side. 

During  this  period  Lincoln  had  frequent  occasion  to  meet 
delegations  from  religious  bodies  and  to  reply  to  their  ad 
dresses.  We  shall  have  occasion  later  to  consider  some  of  his 
words  to  these  different  religious  bodies.  He  also  issued  a 
number  of  proclamations,  calling  for  days  of  fasting  and 
prayer  and  days  of  thanksgiving,  in  which  he  expressed  not 
only  the  formal  sentiment  which  he  might  assume  represented 
the  mind  of  the  people,  but  also  to  a  considerable  extent  what 
must  have  been  his  own  religious  conviction. 

An  unbiased  reading  of  these  proclamations  and  addresses 
compels  the  reader  to  recognize  in  them,  not  merely  the  formal 
courtesy  of  an  official  to  the  representatives  of  large  and 
influential  bodies,  but  the  sincere  expression  of  his  own  faith. 
An  illustration  may  be  found  in  his  attitude  toward  the 
Quakers.  No  religious  body  suffered  more  during  the  Civil 
War,  and  with  no  religious  fellowship  did  Mr.  Lincoln  feel  a 
more  instinctive  sympathy,  though  he  was  compelled  by  the 
logic  of  events  to  pursue  courses  of  action  in  contravention  of 
their  desires  and  at  times  of  their  convictions. 

In  September,  1862,  he  received  a  delegation  of  Friends, 
and  listened  to  an  address  on  their  behalf  by  Mrs.  Eliza  P. 
Gurney,  wife  of  Joseph  John  Gurney,  a  wealthy  banker,  en 
treating  him  on  behalf  of  their  peace-loving  organization  to 
bring  the  war  to  a  speedy  end.  He  could  not  do  what  they 
wished,  and  moreover,  he  believed  that  it  was  not  the  will  of 
God  that  the  war  should  end  till  it  had  wrought  out  the  pur 
poses  of  the  Divine  will.  He  said : 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON       89 

"  I  am  glad  of  this  interview,  and  glad  to  know  that  I  have 
your  sympathy  and  prayers.  We  are  indeed  going  through  a 
great  trial — a  fiery  trial.  In  the  very  responsible  position  in 
which  I  happen  to  be  placed,  being  a  humble  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  as  I  am,  and  as  we  all  are, 
to  work  out  His  great  purposes,  I  have  desired  that  all  my 
works  and  acts  may  be  according  to  His  will,  and  that  it  might 
be  so,  I  have  sought  His  aid ;  but  if,  after  endeavoring  to  do 
my  best  in  the  light  which  He  affords  me,  I  find  my  efforts 
fail,  I  must  believe  that  for  some  purpose  unknown  to  me,  He 
wills  it  otherwise.  If  I  had  had  my  way,  this  war  would  never 
have  been  commenced.  If  I  had  been  allowed  my  way,  this 
war  would  have  been  ended  before  this;  but  we  find  it  still 
continues,  and  we  must  believe  that  He  permits  it  for  some 
wise  purpose  of  His  own,  mysterious  and  unknown  to  us ;  and 
though  with  our  limited  understandings  we  may  not  be  able  to 
comprehend  it,  yet  we  cannot  but  believe  that  He  who  made 
the  world  still  governs  it." 

We  are  not  permitted  to  believe  that  on  this  and  similar 
occasions  Mr.  Lincoln  met  the  situation  with  words  of  pious 
evasion,  or  that  what  he  said  was  simply  what  he  thought  he 
might  be  expected  to  say.  Some  months  after  this  interview 
Mrs.  Gurney,  being  then  in  London,  wrote  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
He  could  easily  have  acknowledged  the  letter  without  com 
mitting  himself  to  any  religious  expression.  For  several 
months  he  kept  the  letter,  and  then,  on  September  4,  1864, 
he  wrote  to  her  as  follows : 

"  My  esteemed  Friend :  I  have  not  forgotten — probably 
never  shall  forget — the  very  impressive  occasion  when  your 
self  and  friends  visited  me  on  a  Sabbath  forenoon  two  years 
ago.  Nor  has  your  kind  letter,  written  nearly  a  year  later, 
ever  been  forgotten.  In  all  it  has  been  your  purpose  to 
strengthen  my  reliance  on  God.  I  am  much  indebted  to  the 
good  Christian  people  of  the  country  for  their  constant  prayers 
and  consolations ;  and  to  no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself. 
The  purposes  of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must  prevail, 
though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  accurately  perceive  them 
in  advance.  We  hoped  for  a  happy  termination  of  this  ter 
rible  war  long  before  this;  but  God  knows  best  and  ruled 


90     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

otherwise.  We  shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wisdom,  and  our 
own  error  therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly  in  the 
best  light  He  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  working  still  conduces 
to  the  great  ends  He  ordains.  Surely  He  intends  some  great 
good  to  follow  this  mighty  convulsion,  which  no  mortal  could 
make,  and  no  mortal  could  stay.  Your  people,  the  Friends, 
have  had,  and  are  having,  a  very  great  trial.  On  principle  and 
faith  opposed  to  both  war  and  oppression,  they  can  only  prac 
tically  oppose  oppression  by  war.  In  this  hard  dilemma  some 
have  chosen  one  horn,  and  some  the  other.  For  those  appeal 
ing  to  me  on  conscientious  grounds,  I  have  done,  and  shall  do, 
the  best  I  could  and  can,  in  my  own  conscience,  under  my 
oath  to  the  law.  That  you  believe  this,  I  doubt  not,  and  believ 
ing  it,  I  shall  receive  for  my  country  and  myself  your  earnest 
prayers  to  our  Father  in  Heaven." 

Of  Lincoln's  habit  of  public  worship  during  his  Presidency, 
Rev.  William  Henry  Roberts,  Stated  Clerk  of  the  Presbyterian 
General  Assembly,  writes  in  a  foreword  to  Dr.  Johnson's  book : 

"  It  was  my  privilege  as  a  young  man  to  have  known 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Entering  the  service  of  the  United  States 
government  in  the  fall  of  1863,  the  first  Sabbath  of  my 
sojourn  in  Washington  City  I  went  to  the  New  York  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church.  When  the  time  for  the  long  prayer 
came,  according  to  immemorial  usage  in  many  Presbyterian 
congregations,  a  number  of  the  men  stood  up  for  prayer,  and 
among  those  upright  figures  I  noticed  in  particular  that  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  As  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Avenue  Church  I  was  seated  not  far  from  Mr.  Lincoln  at 
Sunday  services  for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  his  attitude  was 
always  that  of  an  earnest  and  devout  worshiper.  He  was  also 
an  attendant  at  the  weekly  meeting,  though  for  a  considerable 
period  taking  part  in  the  services  privately.  It  having  become 
known  that  he  was  an  attendant  at  the  prayer  meeting,  many 
persons  would  gather  in  or  near  the  church  at  the  close  of  the 
service  in  order  to  have  access  to  him  for  various  purposes. 
Desiring  to  put  an  end  to  these  unwelcome  interruptions,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Phineas  D.  Gurley,  the  pastor  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  ar 
ranged  to  have  the  President  sit  in  the  pastor's  room,  the  door 
of  which  opened  upon  the  lecture  room,  and  there  Mr.  Lincoln 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON      91 

would  take  a  silent  part  in  the  service.  He  informed  his 
pastor  on  several  occasions  that  he  had  received  great  com 
fort  from  the  meetings,  and  for  the  reason  that  they  had  been 
characterized  more  by  prayer  than  by  the  making  of  addresses. 

"  Dr.  Gurley  bore  repeated  testimony  to  myself  and  to  other 
members  of  the  church  of  the  deeply  religious  character  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  and  it  is  with  pleasure  that  I  add  this  brief  testi 
mony  from  my  own  experience  and  observation. 

"  It  will  be  fifty  years  next  fall  since  I  came  into  direct 
touch  with  the  man,  who  in  the  providence  of  God  was  the 
liberator  of  a  race,  and  I  shall  always  hold  in  sweet  and  blessed 
memory  my  first  sight  of  him,  as  a  devout  worshiper  standing 
for  prayer  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Most  High." — Abraham 
Lincoln  the  Christian,  pp.  13-15. 

I  have  copied  direct  from  the  original  letter,  in  possession 
of  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik,  Nicolay's  letter  to  Herndon  affirming 
that,  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge,  Lincoln's  belief  did  not 
change  during  his  years  in  the  White  House.  It  was  addressed 
to  Herndon,  and  it  reads : 

"  Executive  Mansion, 
"  Washington,  May  27,  1865. 
"FRIEND  HERNDON: — 

"  I  have  this  morning  received  your  note  of  the  23rd  inst. 
and  reply  at  once. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not,  to  my  knowledge,  change  in  any 
way  his  religious  views,  beliefs,  or  opinions  from  the  time  he 
left  Springfield  to  the  day  of  his  death.  I  do  not  know  just 
what  they  were,  never  having  heard  him  explain  them  in 
detail;  but  I  am  very  sure  he  gave  no  outward  indication  of 
his  mind  having  undergone  any  change  in  that  regard  while 
here. 

"  Very  truly, 

"JNO.  G.  NICOLAY. 
"  HON.  WILLIAM  H.  HERNDON." 

While  Nicolay's  declaration  that  Lincoln  gave  no  outward 
indication  that  his  views  had  undergone  any  change  during  his 
residence  in  the  White  House  is  entitled  to  great  weight,  it  is 
not  wholly  conclusive.  It  is  quite  possible  that  Mr.  Lincoln 


92     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

changed  more  than  those  who  were  closest  to  him  every  day 
realized,  more,  indeed,  than  he  himself  realized.  Some  men 
who  had  known  him  in  earlier  years  and  who  met  him  from 
time  to  time  while  he  was  in  the  White  House  observed  a 
change  too  subtle  to  be  fully  realized  by  those  who  saw  him 
daily.  Joshua  Fry  Speed  knew  Lincoln  from  the  day  Lincoln 
arrived  in  Springfield  until  his  death.  Indeed,  he  had  known 
Lincoln  earlier;  but  their  intimate  acquaintance  began  on  the 
day  when  Lincoln  received  his  law  license  and  moved  to  Spring 
field,  where  he  shared  Speed's  bed.  Speed  told  of  that  inci 
dent  frequently,  how  Lincoln  came  into  his  store,  greatly  de 
pressed,  asking  to  be  permitted  to  purchase  a  single  bed  which 
he  was  not  certain  he  could  ever  pay  for;  but  Speed  invited 
Lincoln  to  sleep  with  him  in  the  room  above  the  store.  Lincoln 
carried  his  saddlebags  upstairs  and  set  them  down,  and  came 
down  the  stairs  with  his  countenance  beaming,  as  he  said, 
"  Well,  Speed,  I've  moved !  "  Lamon  declares  that  Speed  was 
"  The  most  intimate  friend  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  had  at  this  or  any 
other  time"  (Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  231).  Says  Lamon:  "He 
made  to  Speed  the  most  confidential  communications  he  ever 
made  to  mortal  man.  If  he  had  on  earth  '  a  bosom  crony/  it 
was  Speed,  and  that  deep  and  abiding  attachment  subsisted 
unimpaired  to  the  day  of  Lincoln's  death."  To  Speed  alone 
Lincoln  gave  his  full  confidence  in  the  matter  of  his  love  af 
fairs,  and  they  talked  together  as  men  seldom  talk  to  each 
other.  Speaking  out  of  a  most  intimate  knowledge,  Speed 
wrote  in  his  lecture  on  Lincoln : 

"  I  have  often  been  asked  what  were  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
opinions.  When  I  knew  him  in  early  life,  he  was  a  skeptic. 
He  had  tried  hard  to  be  a  believer,  but  his  reason  could  not 
grasp  and  solve  the  great  problem  of  redemption  as  taught. 
He  was  very  cautious  never  to  give  expression  to  any  thought 
or  sentiment  that  would  grate  harshly  upon  a  Christian  ear. 
For  a  sincere  Christian  he  had  great  respect.  He  often  said 
that  the  most  ambitious  man  might  live  to  see  every  hope  fail  ; 
but  no  Christian  could  live  and  see  his  hope  fail,  because  ful 
fillment  could  only  come  when  life  ended.  But  this  was  a 
subject  we  never  discussed.  The  only  evidence  I  have  of  any 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON       93 

change,  was  in  the  summer  before  he  was  killed.  I  was  invited 
out  to  the  Soldiers'  Home  to  spend  the  night.  As  I  entered 
the  room,  near  night,  he  was  sitting  near  a  window  intently 
reading  his  Bible.  Approaching  him  I  said,  *  I  am  glad  to 
see  you  so  profitably  engaged.'  '  Yes/  said  he,  '  I  am  profit 
ably  engaged/  '  Well/  said  I,  *  if  you  have  recovered  from 
your  skepticism,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  have  not/  Looking 
me  earnestly  in  the  face,  and  placing  his  hand  on  my  shoulder, 
he  said,  '  You  are  wrong,  Speed;  take  all  of  this  Book  upon 
reason  that  you  can,  and  the  balance  on  faith,  and  you  will  live 
and  die  a  happier  man/  " — SPEED:  Lecture  on  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  pp.  32,  33. 

The  Bible  which  the  colored  people  presented  to  Lincoln 
was  kept  and  prized  by  him.  Hon.  H.  C.  Deming,  in  his 
address  before  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut,  just  after  Lin 
coln's  death,  referred  to  it: 

"  The  interview  which  I  am  recalling  was  last  summer 
[1864]  just  after  General  Fremont  had  declined  to  run  against 
him  for  the  Presidency.  The  magnificent  Bible,  which  the 
negroes  of  Washington  3  had  just  presented  to  him  lay  upon 
the  table,  and  while  we  were  both  examining  it,  I  recited  the 
somewhat  remarkable  passage  from  the  Chronicles,  '  Eastward 
were  six  Levites,  northward  four  a  day,  southward  four  a 
day,  and  toward  Assuppim  two  and  two.  At  Parbar  west 
ward,  four  at  the  causeway,  and  two  at  Parbar/  4  He  im 
mediately  challenged  me  to  find  any  such  passage  as  that  in 
his  Bible.  After  I  had  pointed  it  out  to  him,  and  he  was 
satisfied  of  its  genuineness,  he  asked  me  if  I  remembered  the 
text  which  his  friends  had  applied  to  Fremont,  and  instantly 
turned  to  a  verse  in  the  first  of  Samuel,  put  on  his  spectacles, 
and  read  in  his  slow,  peculiar,  and  waggish  tone, — '  And 
everyone  that  was  in  distress  and  everyone  that  was  in  debt, 
and  everyone  that  was  discontented  gathered  themselves  unto 

3  Carpenter  says  tEat  these  were  the  negroes  of  Baltimore,  and  is 
probably  correct. 

4  This   curious    passage,    which    is   very   nearly   meaningless    if  ^read 
apart  from  its  context,  has  to  do  with  the  appointment  of  the  priestly 
families  that  furnished  the  porters,  or  guards,  for  the  approaches  to  the 
temple  in  Jerusalem.     It  is  found  in  I  Chronicles  26:17-18. 


94     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

him ;  and  he  became  a  captain  over  them :  and  there  were  with 
him  about  four  hundred  men.'  "  5 

There  are  two  interesting  facts  about  this  incident  related 
by  Representative  Deming.  One  is  that  Lincoln  knew  his 
Bible  well  enough  to  challenge  an  unfamiliar  passage  and  re 
quire  that  it  be  shown  to  him  before  believing  that  the  Bible 
contained  it.  Only  a  man  who  had  read  his  Bible  much 
would  have  been  so  confident.  The  other  is  that  this  story 
recalled  to  Mr.  Deming  that  very  important  declaration  of 
Lincoln  which  is  attested  by  a  number  of  other  credible  wit 
nesses  in  substance,  but  which  Deming  first  gave  to  the  world 
in  his  notable  address : 

"  I  am  here  reminded  of  an  impressive  remark  which  he 
made  to  me  upon  another  occasion,  and  which  I  shall  never 
forget.  He  said,  he  had  never  united  himself  to  any  church, 
because  he  found  difficulty  in  giving  his  assent,  without  mental 
reservations,  to  the  long  complicated  statements  of  Christian 
doctrine  which  characterize  their  Articles  of  Belief  and  Con 
fessions  of  Faith.  '  When  any  church/  he  continued,  *  will 
inscribe  over  its  altar  as  its  sole  qualification  for  membership 
the  Saviour's  condensed  statement  of  the  substance  of  both 
the  law  and  Gospel,  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself, — that  church  will  I  join  with  all 
my  heart  and  soul.'  " — Eulogy  upon  Abraham  Lincoln,  before 
the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  1865,  p.  42. 

Henry  C.  Whitney  knew  Lincoln  well,  from  the  days  of 
their  circuit  riding  in  Illinois  till  Lincoln's  death.  His  testi 
mony  is  valuable : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  fatalist :  he  believed,  and  often  said, 
that 

'  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will' 

5  This  well-known  and  picturesque  passage  describes  the  army  of 
David  when  he  was  an  outlaw  and  half  a  freebooter,  fleeing  from  the 
fury  of  Saul  and  hiding  in  the  cave  of  Adullam.  I  Samuel  22 : 2. 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON      95 

and  as  a  corollary  from  this  belief,  that  the  Almighty  controlled 
the  affairs  of  men  and  made  the  wrath  of  men  to  praise  Him. 
In  all  stages  of  his  administration  and  before,  commencing 
with  his  first  public  utterance  after  his  election,  he  declared 
that  with  God's  help  he  should  succeed,  and  without  it  he  would 
fail.  Likewise,  before  he  was  run  for  the  Presidency,  he  made 
frequent  references  to  God  in  the  same  spirit  of  devoutness  and 
trust;  and,  therefore,  he  was  honest;  honest  with  his  Father 
on  his  dying  bed,  honest  in  what  he  feared  was  (and  which 
proved  to  be)  his  last  affectionate  farewell  to  his  neighbors, 
honest  to  the  many  eminent  bands  of  clergymen  and  Christian 
people  who  visited  him,  and  honest  with  his  Cabinet  in  the 
most  important  consultation  it  ever  held ;  then  Lincoln,  whether 
as  man  or  as  President,  believed  in  God  as  the  Ruler  of  the 
Universe,  in  a  blessed  hereafter,  and*  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  himself  to  be  an  instrument  of 
God;  and  that,  as  God  willed,  so  would  the  contest  be.  He 
also  believed  in  prayer  and  its  efficacy,  and  that  God  willed  the 
destruction  of  slavery  through  his  instrumentality,  and  he  be 
lieved  in  the  Church  of  God  as  an  important  auxiliary." — 
Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  pp.  267-68. 

Among  the  men  in  Washington  who  best  knew  the  mind 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  Schuyler  Colfax,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  afterward  Vice-President  under 
General  Grant.  In  his  memorial  address  delivered  just  after 
the  assassination,  he  paid  a  high  tribute  to  the  deep  religious 
spirit  of  Lincoln  as  he  knew  it,  and  said : 

"  Nor  should  I  forget  to  mention  that  the  last  Act  of  Con 
gress  signed  by  him  was  one  requiring  that  the  motto,  in  which 
he  sincerely  believed,  *  In  God  we  trust '  should  hereafter  be 
inscribed  upon  all  our  national  coins." — HON.  SCHUYLER 
COLFAX,  in  Memorial  Address  in  Chicago,  April  30,  1865. 

During  his  residence  in  the  White  House  Mr.  Lincoln 
again  met  the  discipline  of  personal  bereavement.  His  son 
Willie  died.  There  is  conflict  of  testimony  as  to  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  love  for  his  wife,-  though  the  present  writer  believes  that 
he  truly  loved  her,  but  no  one  who  knew  him  ever  doubted  his 


96     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

devotion  to  his  children.  The  death  of  this  little  boy,  William 
Wallace,  who  was  born  in  Springfield,  December  21,  1850,  and 
died  in  the  White  House,  February  20,  1862,  seemed,  accord 
ing  to  the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  to  turn  his  thoughts 
more  to  religion.  It  must  have  recalled  to  him  all  that  had 
occurred  when  his  other  boy  died  in  Springfield,  and  it  brought 
new  and  solemn  thoughts  and  possibly  convictions. 

Moreover,  he  was  now  father  to  the  boys  of  a  nation. 
They  were  marching  at  his  order,  singing, 

"  We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham, 
hundred  thousand  more." 


They  were  laying  down  their  young  lives  for  a  cause  that  he 
told  them  was  holy.  How  he  felt  for  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  the  land,  his  letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby  and  his  countless  deeds  of 
mercy  testify.  Again  and  again,  as  Ingersoll  well  said,  he 
abused  his  great  power  on  the  side  of  mercy  and  never  other 
wise.  The  deepening  sense  of  responsibility,  as  he  affirmed, 
again  and  again  drove  him  to  his  knees  (Noah  Brooks  in 
Harper's  Monthly  for  July,  1885).  Did  he  consciously  change 
his  theology  ?  Very  likely  not  ;  but  he  certainly  became  a  more 
and  more  deeply  religious  man  under  the  discipline  of  these 
experiences. 

Perhaps  more  than  all  else,  the  moral  aspects  of  the  slavery 
question  thrust  themselves  into  a  foremost  place  in  his  religious 
thinking.  We  need  not  trouble  ourselves  overmuch  about  the 
accuracy  of  John  Hanks's  story  that  when  Lincoln  saw  slaves 
sold  in  the  market  in  New  Orleans  he  vowed  to  "  hit  that 
institution  and  hit  it  hard  "  ;  part  of  that  story  may  have 
originated  in  John's  fertile  imagination.  But  the  story  is  not 
an  unworthy  one,  and  we  know  from  Lincoln's  own  declara 
tion  that  on  that  very  occasion  he  was  smitten  with  a  sense  of 
the  iniquity  of  slavery,  and  that  on  its  moral  rather  than  its 
political  side.  That  he  freed  the  slaves  as  a  war  measure,  and 
that  he  must  thus  justify  the  action  as  an  extra-constitutional 
prerogative,  need  not  lessen  in  our  mind  the  moral  aspects  of 
the  decision.  The  evidence  is  incontestable,  and  we  shall  quote 


LINCOLN'S  LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON      97 

it  later,  that  to  him  it  was  a  solemn  obligation,  the  fulfillment 
of  a  vow  which  he  had  made  to  God. 

We  are  presently  to  go  into  a  detailed  examination  of  the 
available  evidence  concerning  Lincoln's  religious  life.  We  are 
here  considering  his  environment  in  the  successive  stages  of 
his  career,  and  his  visible  reaction  to  it.  But  even  if  we  were 
to  go  no  further,  we  should  find  ourselves  compelled  to  believe 
in  the  reality  of  Lincoln's  religion.  We  might  not  be  able 
accurately  to  define  it,  and  we  may  not  be  able  to  do  so  to 
our  complete  satisfaction  after  we  have  finished;  we  might 
even  question,  and  we  may  still  question,  whether  he  himself 
ever  fully  defined  it.  But  we  are  assured  that  his  religion  was 
real  and  genuine,  and  that  it  grew  more  vital  as  he  faced  more 
completely  the  moral  and  spiritual  aspects  of  the  work  to 
which,  as  he  honestly  believed,  he  was  divinely  called. 

When  General  Lee  surrendered  his  armies  on  April  9,  1865, 
Mr.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  though  not  a  very  religious 
man  in  his  profession,  felt  with  the  whole  nation  the  Provi 
dence  of  God  in  the  result.  He  surrounded  the  dome  of  the 
Capitol  with  a  transparency,  reading,  "  This  is  the  Lord's 
doing,  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes." 

He  believed  it;  the  nation  believed  it;  Abraham  Lincoln 
believed  it.  That  conviction  that  the  hand  of  God  had  been  in 
it  all  had  but  lately  been  expressed  in  his  Second  Inaugural. 
That  faith  was  warm  in  his  heart,  and  its  expression  fresh 
upon  his  lips,  when  on  April  14,  1865,  he  was  shot  and  killed. 

So  ended  the  earthly  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  with 
that  end  came  the  beginning  of  the  discussion  of  his  religion. 
To  the  history  of  that  discussion,  and  the  critical  consideration 
of  the  evidence  which  it  adduced,  we  are  now  to  address  our 
selves. 


PART  II:  AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE 
EVIDENCE 


PART  II:  AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE 
EVIDENCE 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE 

THUS  far  we  have  dealt  primarily  with  the  environments  of 
Lincoln's  religious  life.  We  have  not  been  able  to  escape  the 
conviction  that  Lincoln's  religious  life  was  an  evolution,  in 
fluenced  by  his  environment  and  experience.  We  have  consid 
ered  in  these  successive  chapters  some  matters  in  detail  which 
seemed  to  belong  particularly  to  the  respective  periods  of  which 
those  chapters  have  treated ;  but  we  have  reserved,  in  general, 
the  evidence  that  bears  upon  his  religion  as  a  whole  for  more 
critical  examination.  Particularly  have  we  reserved  those  por 
tions  of  the  evidence  which,  first  published  after  his  death, 
belong  to  no  one  epoch  of  his  life  and  have  become  the  occasion 
of  controversy.  What  kind  of  man  he  was  religiously  in  1865 
we  shall  hope  to  know  better;  indeed,  it  is  not  unreasonable 
to  hope  that  examination  may  show  in  part  the  processes  by 
which  his  religion  found  its  final  form  and  expression. 

We  know  already  that  there  had  been  a  development.  We 
know  that  the  Abraham  Lincoln  who  in  1834  delivered  his 
political  opinions  in  labored  and  florid  style  and  with  the  logic 
current  in  stump  oratory  had  undergone  mental  development 
and  had  emerged  into  the  Lincoln  who  delivered  his  thoughts 
in  translucent  Anglo-Saxon  at  Gettysburg  and  the  Second  In 
augural.  That  there  had  been  a  moral  and  spiritual  develop 
ment  also  we  have  already  been  assured.  Perhaps  it  was 
greater  than  he  himself  consciously  understood.  We  shall  now 
endeavor  to  ascertain  what  it  had  come  to  be. 

In  this  inquiry  we  have  no  easy  task.  The  mass  of  evi 
dence  is  great,  and  the  contradictions  are  many.  There  were 

IOI 


102     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

contradictions  in  the  personality  of  the  man  himself,  and  many 
contradictions  in  the  views  which  men,  even  honest  and  un 
prejudiced  men,  had  of  him;  and  not  all  the  testimony  is 
unprejudiced. 

Lincoln  was  a  man  of  many  moods.  He  reacted  differently 
to  different  stimuli,  and  to  the  same  stimulus  at  different  times. 
His  feelings  ran  the  gamut  from  abysmal  dejection  to  rollick 
ing  gaiety :  and  he  never  revealed  his  whole  nature  to  any  one 
man,  nor  showed  the  whole  of  his  nature  at  any  one  time. 
He  cannot  be  judged  by  the  mechanical  tests  of  a  rigid  con 
sistency  :  for  he  was  not  that  kind  of  man. 

When  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  went  to  Springfield  immediately 
after  the  death  of  Lincoln  to  gather  material  for  his  biography 
he  was  surprised  beyond  measure  to  find  how  conflicting  were 
the  local  judgments  of  Lincoln's  character.  Concerning  this 
he  wrote : 

"  Such  a  nature  and  character  seem  full  of  contradictions; 
and  a  man  who  is  subject  to  such  transitions  will  always  be 
a  mystery  to  those  who  do  not  know  him  wholly.  Thus  no 
two  men  among  his  intimate  friends  will  agree  concerning  him. 

"  The  writer  has  conversed  with  multitudes  of  men  who 
claimed  to  know  Mr.  Lincoln  intimately ;  yet  there  are  not  two 
of  the  whole  number  who  agree  in  their  estimate  of  him.  The 
fact  was  that  he  rarely  showed  more  than  one  aspect  of  himself 
to  one  man.  He  opened  himself  to  men  in  different  directions. 
It  was  rare  that  he  exhibited  what  was  religious  in  him ;  and 
he  never  did  this  at  all,  except  when  he  found  just  the  nature 
and  character  that  were  sympathetic  with  that  aspect  and  ele 
ment  of  his  character.  A  great  deal  of  his  best,  deepest,  largest 
life  he  kept  almost  constantly  from  view,  because  he  would  not 
expose  it  to  the  eyes  and  apprehension  of  the  careless  mul 
titude. 

11  To  illustrate  the  effect  of  the  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
intercourse  with  men,  it  may  be  said  that  men  who  knew  him 
through  all  his  professional  and  political  life  have  offered 
opinions  as  diametrically  opposite  as  these,  viz. :  that  he  was  a 
very  ambitious  man,  and  that  he  was  without  a  particle  of 
ambition;  that  he  was  one  of  the  saddest  men  that  ever  lived, 
and  that  he  was  one  of  the  jolliest  men  that  ever  lived;  that 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE  103 

he  was  very  religious,  but  that  he  was  not  a  Christian;  that 
he  was  a  Christian,  but  did  not  know  it;  that  he  was  so  far 
from  being  a  religious  man  or  a  Christian  that  '  the  less  said 
upon  the  subject  the  better';  that  he  was  the  most  cunning 
man  in  America,  and  that  he  had  not  a  particle  of  cunning  in 
him ;  that  he  had  the  strongest  personal  attachments,  and  that 
he  had  no  personal  attachments  at  all — only  a  general  good 
feeling  toward  everybody;  that  he  was  a  man  of  indomitable 
will,  and  that  he  was  a  man  almost  without  a  will;  that  he 
was  a  tyrant,  and  that  he  was  the  softest-hearted,  most 
brotherly  man  that  ever  lived ;  that  he  was  remarkable  for  his 
pure-mindedness,  and  that  he  was  the  foulest  in  his  jests  and 
stories  of  any  man  in  the  country;  that  he  was  a  witty  man, 
and  that  he  was  only  a  retailer  of  the  wit  of  others;  that  his 
apparent  candor  and  fairness  were  only  apparent,  and  that  they 
were  as  real  as  his  head  and  his  hands;  that  he  was  a  boor, 
and  that  he  was  in  all  essential  respects  a  gentleman;  that  he 
was  a  leader  of  the  people,  and  that  he  was  always  led  by 
the  people;  that  he  was  cool  and  impassive,  and  that  he  was 
susceptible  of  the  strongest  passions.  It  is  only  by  tracing 
these  separate  streams  of  impression  back  to  their  fountain 
that  we  are  able  to  arrive  at  anything  like  a  competent  compre 
hension  of  the  man,  or  to  learn  why  he  came  to  be  held  in  such 
various  estimation.  Men  caught  only  separate  aspects  of  his 
character — only  the  fragments  that  were  called  into  exhibition 
by  their  own  qualities." — HOLLAND:  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp. 
241-42. 

Some  writers,  and  more  orators,  have  professed  to  see  in 
the  character  of  Lincoln  a  perfect  balancing  of  all  desirable 
qualities.  Bishop  Fowler,  in  what  was  perhaps  the  most  widely 
popular  of  all  popular  orations  on  Lincoln,  attributed  his  own 
inability  to  analyze  the  character  of  Lincoln  to  its  perfect 
sphericity,  a  consistency  such  that  any  attempt  to  consider  any 
quality  by  itself  met  the  counterbalancing  consideration  of  all 
the  other  qualities.  But  the  antitheses  in  Lincoln's  character 
were  not  those  of -a  perfect  consistency.1  They  were  of  a  sort 

1  "Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  method,  system,  or  order  in  his  exterior 
affairs ;  he  had  no  library,  no  clerk,  no  stenographer ;  he  had  no  common 
place-book,  no  index  rerum,  no  diary.  Even  when  he  was  President  and 
wanted  to  preserve  a  memorandum  of  anything,  he  noted  it  down  on  a 


104     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

which  puzzled  those  who  knew  him  best,  and  were  most  easily 
explained  by  those  who  gave  least  study  to  the  man  himself 
and  most  to  their  own  theories  of  what  a  man  like  Mr.  Lincoln 
must  have  been. 

Of  these  sharp  antitheses  in  Lincoln's  character,  Col.  Clark 
E.  Carr,  who  knew  him  well,  said  in  an  address  which  I 
heard : 

"  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  drollest  man  I  ever  saw. 

"He  could  make  a  cat  laugh.  Never  was  another  man 
so  vivacious ;  never  have  I  seen  another  who  provoked  so  much 
mirth,  and  who  entered  into  rollicking  fun  with  such  glee. 
He  was  the  most  comical  and  jocose  of  human  beings,  laugh 
ing  with  the  same  zest  at  his  own  jokes  as  at  those  of  others. 
I  did  not  wonder  that,  while  actively  engaged  in  party  politics, 
his  opponents  who  had  seen  him  in  these  moods  called  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  a  clown  and  an  ape. 

"  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  most  serious  man  I  ever  saw. 

"  When  I  heard  him  protest  against  blighting  our  new 
territories  with  the  curse  of  human  slavery,  in  his  debates  with 
Senator  Douglas,  no  man  could  have  been  more  in  earnest, 
none  more  serious.  In  his  analysis  of  legal  problems,  whether 
in  the  practice  of  his  profession  or  in  the  consideration  of 
State  papers,  he  became  wholly  absorbed  in  his  subject.  Some 
times  he  lapsed  into  reverie  and  communed  with  his  own 
thoughts,  noting  nothing  that  was  going  on  about  him  until 
aroused,  when  perhaps  he  would  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the 
subject  that  had  occupied  his  mind,  or  perhaps  break  out  into 
laughter  and  tell  a  joke  or  story  that  set  the  table  in  a  roar. 

"  When  I  saw  him  at  Gettysburg  as  he  exclaimed,  *  That 
we  here  highly  resolve  that  the  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain;  that  the  nation  shall,  under  God,  have  a  new  birth  of 
freedom,  and  that  the  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth ! ' — when  I 
heard  him  declare  in  his  second  inaugural  address,  *  Fondly  do 
we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of 

card  and  stuck  it  into  a  drawer  or  in  his  vest  pocket.  But  in  his  mental 
processes  and  operations,  he  had  the  most  complete  system  and  order. 
While  outside  of  his  mind  all  was  anarchy  and  confusion,  inside  all  was 
symmetry  and  method."  WHITNEY:  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln, 
p.  no. 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE          105 

war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  continue 
until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until 
every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by 
another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "  the  judgments  of  the  Lord  are 
true  and  righteous  altogether."  .  .  .  With  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God 
gives  us  to  see  the  right/ — as  I  looked  upon  him  and  heard 
him  utter  these  sentiments,  upon  these  occasions,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  the  most  solemn,  the  most  dignified,  the  mosj; 
majestic,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  benignant  human 
being  I  ever  saw. 

"  Rochefoucauld  says  that  '  Gravity  is  a  mystery  of  the 
body  invented  to  conceal  defects  of  the  mind.'  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury  says  that  '  Gravity  is  the  very  essence  of  imposture/ 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  none  of  this. 

"  Man  is  the  most  serious  of  animals.  Man  is  the  most 
frivolous  of  animals.  It  is  said  that  man  is  the  only  animal 
that  can  both  laugh  and  cry.  Abraham  Lincoln  gave  full  vent 
to  his  emotions.  He  went  through  life  with  no  restraints  nor 
manacles  upon  his  human  nature.  He  was  honest  in  the  ex 
pression  of  his  feelings,  whether  serious  or  otherwise,  honest 
in  their  manifestation,  honest  with  himself. 

"  It  was  because  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  most  human  of 
human  beings  that  he  is  loved  as  has  never  been  any  other 
man  that  ever  lived." — CLARK  E.  CARR  :  My  Day  and  Genera?- 
tion,  pp.  107-9. 

There  was  much  reason  for  this  wide  disparity  of  opinion 
in  the  varying  moods  of  Lincoln  himself,  and  the  contrary 
aspects  of  his  personality.  But  this  was  not  the  sole  reason. 
Springfield  itself  was  greatly  divided  concerning  Mr.  Lincoln. 
There  were  lawyers  who  had  been  on  opposing  sides  of  cases 
against  him  and  had  sometimes  won  them.  There  were  all  the 
petty  animosities  which  grow  up  in  a  small  city.  Furthermore, 
Springfield  was  moderately  full  of  disappointed  people  who 
had  expected  that  their  friendship  for  Lincoln  would  have 
procured  for  them  some  political  appointment.  Any  political 
aspirant  living  in  Maine  or  Missouri  who  had  a  fourth  cousin 


106     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

living  in  Springfield  and  possessed  of  a  speaking  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  felt  that  he  and  his  kinsfolk  suffered  an 
unmerited  discourtesy  if  Mr.  Lincoln  through  such  influence 
did  not  produce  on  application  a  commission  as  Major-General 
or  an  appointment  as  Ambassador  to  some  foreign  court. 

We  have  a  yet  further  difficulty  to  face  in  the  conflict  of 
testimony  of  habitually  truthful  people.  If  it  were  becoming 
in  the  author  of  a  book  such  as  this  to  pass  any  general  criti 
cism  upon  those  authors  who  have  preceded  him  in  the  same 
field,  it  might,  perhaps,  be  counted  not  invidious  to  say  that 
for  the  most  part  writers  on  the  religion  of  Lincoln  have  been 
content  to  adduce  the  testimony  of  a  limited  number  of  ap 
parently  truthful  witnesses  in  support  of  their  theory,  but  have 
not  given  the  evidence  very  much  examination  beyond  the 
general  fact  that  the  witnesses  were  habitually  truthful  people. 
We  shall  not  arrive  at  the  truth  in  this  fashion. 

We  may  borrow  an  illustration  from  a  field  which  lies 
just  outside  the  scope  of  our  present  inquiry.  Even  to  this 
day  it  is  possible  to  start  a  warm  discussion  almost  anywhere 
in  Springfield  over  the  question  of  Lincoln's  domestic  affairs. 
It  is  possible  to  prove  on  the  testimony  of  unimpeached  wit 
nesses  that  Lincoln  loved  his  wife  passionately,  and  that  he 
did  not  love  her  at  all;  that  he  married  Mary  Todd  because 
he  loved  her  and  had  already  answered  in  his  own  heart  all  his 
previous  questions  and  misgivings,  and  that  he  married  her 
because  she  and  her  relatives  practically  compelled  him  to  do 
so,  and  that  he  went  to  the  marriage  altar  muttering  that  he 
was  going  to  hell ;  that  Mary  Todd  not  only  admired  Abraham 
Lincoln,  but  loved  him  with  a  beautiful  and  wifely  devotion, 
and  that  she  hated  him  and  never  ceased  to  wreak  revenge  upon 
him  for  having  once  deserted  her  upon  the  eve  of  their  an 
nounced  marriage ;  that  Mary  Todd  wore  a  white  silk  dress  on 
the  night  of  her  wedding,  and  that  she  never  owned  a  white 
silk  dress  until  she  had  become  a  resident  of  the  White  House ; 
that  the  wedding  was  a  gay  affair,  with  a  great  dinner,  and 
was  followed  by  a  reception  for  which  several  hundred  printed 
invitations  were  issued,  and  that  the  wedding  was  hastily  per 
formed  on  a  Sunday  evening,  Mr.  Dresser,  the  minister,  cut- 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE  107 

ting  short  his  evening  service  and  dropping  in  on  the  way 
home  to  solemnize  a  quickly  extemporized  marriage  contract. 
It  would  seem  fairly  easy  to  discover  from  a  calendar  of  the 
year  1842  at  least  what  day  in  the  week  was  chosen  for  the 
wedding,  but  few  if  any  of  the  disputants,  or  even  of  the  biog 
raphers,  appear  to  have  taken  this  pains.  If  the  present  writer 
should  ever  have  occasion  to  write  about  Abraham  Lincoln's 
married  life,  he  would  not  proceed  very  far  without  consulting 
a  calendar  for  that  year;  and  he  would  hope  to  settle  at  least 
one  point  in  the  controversy  by  telling  the  world  that  in  1842 
the  fourth  day  of  November  did  not  occur  on  Sunday  or 
Tuesday,  but  on  Friday;2  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  both  being 
tinged  with  superstition,  he  might  raise  the  question  whether 
the  celebration  of  the  wedding  upon  that  date  probably  was 
or  was  not  long  premeditated.  But  the  present  book  does  not 
concern  itself  with  these  questions,  and  the  matter  is  here 
introduced  merely  to  illustrate  that  no  point  in  controversy 
in  a  matter  of  this  character  can  be  definitely  settled  by  the 
unsupported  testimony  of  a  single  honest  witness  relying  upon 
his  memory  after  the  lapse  of  many»years« 

Evidence  such  as  we  are  to  consider  is  of  two  kinds,  known 
in  logic  as  a  priori  and  a  posteriori.  The  first  kind  is  evidence 
from  antecedent  probability ;  the  second  is  evidence  relating  to 
matter  after  the  fact.  An  illustration  will  serve : 

A  man  is  found  dead,  with  a  wound  in  his  forehead,  and 
there  are  no  witnesses  who  can  be  produced  in  court  who  saw 
the  man  die.  The  wound  appears  to  have  been  produced  by  a 
bullet,  and,  as  no  weapon  is  found  beside  the  body,  there  is  a 
presumption  that  the  man  has  been  murdered.  A  neighbor  is 
accused  of  having  committed  the  deed.  The  a  priori  evidence 
is  adduced  in  testimony  that  the  defendant  and  the  deceased 
had  long  been  on  bad  terms  with  each  other  on  account  of  a 
line  fence  between  their  adjacent  properties;  that  the  de- 

2  Mrs.  Edwards,  Mrs.  Lincoln's  sister,  in  a  published  interview  which 
Barker  of  Springfield  has  reprinted  in  a  limited  edition,  gives  a  circum 
stantial  account  of  the  wedding,  which,  she  affirms,  occurred  on  Sunday 
night.  The  calendar  contradicts  her.  Nor  would  the  court  house  have 
been  open  for  the  issue  of  the  license  on  Sunday;  its  date  is  the  date 
of  the  wedding.  The  license  was  procured,  and  the  marriage  was  sol 
emnized,  on  Friday. 


108     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

fendant  had  threatened  to  kill  the  deceased  and  had  recently 
bought  a  revolver.  The  evidence  a  posteriori  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  defendant's  revolver  on  examination  shows  one 
empty  chamber  and  that  the  ball  in  the  deceased  man's  brain 
is  of  the  caliber  suited  to  his  weapon  and  of  the  same  manu 
facture  as  the  unused  cartridges  in  the  weapon.  To  this  may 
be  added  other  incriminating  facts,  as  of  measured  footprints 
near  the  scene  of  murder  which  correspond  to  the  size  of  the 
defendant's  boots,  and  of  possible  blood  stains  upon  his 
clothing. 

A  very  large  volume  of  a  priori  evidence  is  sometimes  set 
aside  by  a  single  a  posteriori  fact ;  for  instance,  in  the  foregoing 
supposititious  case  it  may  be  entirely  possible  to  prove  that  the 
murder  was  committed  by  a  tramp,  and  that  the  defendant  was 
ten  miles  away  at  the  time  the  deed  was  done. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  large  volume  of  a  posteriori  evidence 
sometimes  disappears  in  the  face  of  a  single  a  priori  considera 
tion.  A  man  is  accused  of  having  stolen  a  sheep.  It  is  shown 
in  evidence  that  on  the  evening  when  the  sheep  was  stolen  he 
walked  through  his  neighbor's  pasture  and  was  seen  to  ap 
proach  the  sheep;  that  he  sold  mutton  on  the  day  after  the 
loss  of  the  sheep,  and  that  a  fresh  sheepskin  was  found  nailed 
to  his  barn  door.  All  this  a  posteriori  evidence  and  much 
more  may  be  completely  set  aside  in  the  minds  of  the  jury  by 
the  single  fact  that  the  man  accused  has  lived  for  forty  years 
in  the  community  and  has  borne  a  reputation  incompatible 
with  the  crime  of  sheep-stealing. 

In  the  examination  of  testimony  concerning  alleged  utter 
ances  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  matters  of  religious  belief,  we 
must  ask  such  questions  as  these : 

Is  the  witness  credible  ?  Had  he  opportunity  to  know  what 
he  professes  to  relate?  Were  other  witnesses  present,  and  if 
so,  do  they  agree  in  their  recollection  of  the  words  spoken? 
Was  the  interview  published  at  a  time  when  it  could  have  been 
denied  by  those  who  had  knowledge  of  the  incident?  Had  the 
witness  time  to  enlarge  the  incident  by  frequent  telling  and 
by  such  exaggeration  and  enlargement  of  detail  as  is  likely  to 
occur  with  the  lapse  of  years?  Had  the  witness  a  probable 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE          109 

motive  for  exaggeration ;  does  he  appear  to  tell  what  he  would 
presumably  have  liked  Mr.  Lincoln  to  say,  and  does  it  sound 
more  like  the  narrator's  own  style  than  it  does  like  Mr. 
Lincoln?  Do  the  language  and  the  sentiments  expressed  ac 
cord  with  the  published  addresses,  letters,  and  authentic  docu 
ments  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  are  the  views  expressed  in 
accord  with  the  views  which  he  is  known  to  have  held?  On 
the  other  hand,  is  it  possible  that  in  the  freedom  of  personal 
conversation  Mr.  Lincoln  may  have  said  some  things  which 
he  would  not  have  been  likely  to  say  in  formal  discourse  or 
to  write  in  official  documents? 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  formally  ask  these  and  only 
these  questions ;  but  these  are  the  kinds  of  sieve  through  which 
oral  testimony  must  be  passed  if  we  are  to  learn  the  truth. 

Particular  care  needs  to  be  exercised  in  the  application  of 
these  tests,  and  especially  in  the  employment  of  all  a  priori 
methods.  The  author  of  this  volume  is  a  Christian  minister, 
and  would  be  heartily  glad  to  find  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  authentic 
utterances  indubitable  evidence  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  essen 
tially  a  Christian ;  there  is  need  that  he  take  especial  care  not  to 
apply  these  discriminating  tests  in  such  fashion  as  to  sustain 
his  own  prejudices.  Nor  must  he  magnify  his  caution  until  it 
becomes  an  inverted  prejudice. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  a  priori  method  must  on  no  ac 
count  be  ruled  out.  Mr.  Lincoln  left  a  great  quantity  of 
authentic  material.  His  speeches,  letters,  and  state  papers  fill 
twelve  volumes,  and  even  these  do  not  contain  all  of  his  signed 
material.  We  are  compelled  to  judge  alleged  utterances  of  his 
somewhat  in  the  light  of  our  certain  knowledge  of  what  he 
wrote  and  said.  Let  us  illustrate  the  application  of  this 
principle : 

If  an  aged  man  living  in  central  Illinois  were  now  to  arise 
and  say :  "  I  knew  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  he  said  to  me  one 
day  in  private  conversation,  '  There  is  no  God/  "  we  should  be 
justified  in  discrediting  that  man's  testimony,  even  though  he 
bore  a  good  reputation  for  veracity.  The  antecedent  im 
probability  of  such  a  declaration  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
too  great  for  us  to  accept  it  on  the  basis  of  one  man's  recol- 


110     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

lection  of  a  private  and  unwitnessed  conversation  fifty  years 
after  Mr.  Lincoln's  death. 

We  should  be  equally  justified  in  rejecting  the  testimony 
at  this  late  date  of  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  old-time  neighbors 
who  would  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  told  him  that  he  believed  the 
whole  of  the  Athanasian  Creed. 

Especial  care  is  necessary  in  dealing  with  the  alleged  utter 
ances  of  deceased  persons  in  matters  of  religion.  The  author 
of  this  book  has  conducted  a  thousand  funerals,  and  has  been 
told  every  conceivable  kind  of  story  concerning  some  of  the 
persons  deceased.  To  the  credit  of  our  frail  humanity  be  it 
recorded  that  nine-tenths  of  this  testimony  was  favorable. 
There  are  few  finer  traits  in  human  nature  than  those  which 
prompt  us  to  speak  only  good  of  the  dead.  The  eagerness 
of  those  who  have  known  not  only  the  virtues  but  the  faults  of 
living  men  to  pass  lightly  over  the  faults  and  emphasize  the 
virtues  of  these  same  men  when  they  are  dead  is  not  only  a 
manifestation  of  the  finest  sort  of  love  of  fair  play  in  refusing 
to  accuse  those  who  cannot  make  answer,  but  is  also  an  ex 
hibition  of  one  of  the  noblest  impulses  of  the  human  spirit. 

Even  the  tendency  of  ministers  to  lie  like  gentlemen  on 
funeral  occasions  is  not  to  be  too  unsparingly  condemned.  It 
springs  from  a  belief  that  the  better  part  of  a  man's  life  is 
the  truer  part  of  him,  and  that  a  man  has  a  right  to  be  judged 
by  the  best  that  is  in  him  not  only  of  achievement  but  even  of 
defeated  aspiration. 

William  Allen  White  is  fond  of  relating  a  story  concern 
ing  a  funeral  in  Kansas.  The  minister  was  in  the  midst  of  his 
eulogy  when  a  man  who  had  come  in  late  and  had  not  heard 
the  beginning  of  the  discourse  tiptoed  down  the  aisle,  took  a 
long  look  into  the  coffin,  and  returned  to  his  seat.  The  min 
ister,  somewhat  disconcerted  by  this  proceeding,  addressed 
him,  saying,  "  The  opportunity  to  view  the  remains  will  be 
given  later."  "  I  know  that,"  replied  the  man,  "  but  I  had 
begun  to  suspect  that  I  had  gotten  into  the  wrong  funeral." 

One  who  has  had  much  experience  with  funerals  and  with 
attempts  to  make  dead  men  appear  better  than  the  same  men 
living  actually  were  or  appeared  to  be,  knows  that  these  efforts 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE  111 

are  not  usually  the  result  of  deliberate  falsehood.  They  grow 
out  of  generous  impulses  and  an  easy  tendency  to  exaggera 
tion.  But  some  people  do  actually  lie,  and  this  fact  also  is 
not  wholly  to  be  forgotten. 

With  these  reminders  of  human  frailty  and  human  gen 
erosity  and  of  the  uncertainty  of  all  things  human,  we  proceed 
to  examine  in  some  detail  the  vast  and  contradictory  mass  of 
evidence  which  after  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
published  concerning  his  faith  or  the  lack  of  it. 

What  is  in  some  respects  the  foremost  example  of  platform 
and  pulpit  oratory  concerning  Lincoln  is  the  oration  of  Bishop 
Charles  Henry  Fowler,  deceased,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  It  illustrates  at  once  the  excellency  and  the  defects 
of  works  of  this  character.  The  oration  had  its  beginning  in 
a  eulogy  delivered  in  Chicago  on  May  4,  1865,  the  day  of  Lin 
coln's  burial  at  Springfield.  From  time  to  time  as  years  went 
by,  Bishop  Fowler  had  occasion  to  deliver  other  addresses  on 
Lincoln,  which,  in  1904,  he  reshaped  into  something  like  the 
final  form  of  the  oration.  First  delivered  in  Minneapolis,  it 
was  repeated  in  many  cities  and  before  great  audiences.  It 
became  the  Bishop's  best  known  and  most  popular  address. 
It  is  the  first  and  easily  the  greatest  of  the  five  that  make  up 
the  volume  of  his  Patriotic  Orations,  the  others  being  on  Grant, , 
McKinley,  Washington,  and  The  Great  Deeds  of  Great  Men. ' 
Of  that  large  book  it  fills  more  than  a  hundred  pages.  It  was 
too  long  ever  to  be  delivered  at  one  time,  but  it  was  completely 
written,  and  fully  committed  to  memory,  so  that  he  chose  at 
each  delivery  what  portions  he  would  utter  and  what  he  would 
omit.  Even  with  the  omissions  he  rarely  spoke  less  than  two 
and  one-half  hours,  and  sometimes  occupied  three  hours,  his 
audiences  hearing  with  sustained  interest  to  the  close.  Of  it 
his  son  says,  that  "  through  its  delivery  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  by  the  natural  process  of  accretion  and  attraction, 
new  facts  were  added  and  others  verified,  until  in  1906  it  was 
put  in  this  final  form." 

Here  is  an  address  whose  composition  occupied  a  strong 
and  able  man  for  thirty-one  years.  It  thrills  with  admiration 


112     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

for  its  subject.  It  is  alive  with  patriotism  and  religion.  It 
deserved,  in  many  respects,  the  attention  which  it  received. 
Men  have  been  known  to  say  that  having  heard  this  address 
they  would  never  spoil  the  impression  by  listening  to  any  other 
address  on  Lincoln. 

And  yet  it  would  not  be  safe  to  quote  this  lecture  in  any  of 
its  substantial  parts  without  further  investigation  of  the 
authority  on  which  Bishop  Fowler  relied.  He  was  a  truthful 
man,  and  a  man  of  ability,  and  if  he  had  been  asked  what 
means  he  took  to  verify  his  statements,  he  would  probably  have 
said  that  he  admitted  no  statement  to  his  lecture  which  he  did 
not  find  attested  by  some  competent  and  truthful  witness. 
Doubtless  so,  and  most  of  the  lecture  is  true,  and  the  impres 
sion  which  it  makes  as  a  whole  is  substantially  true,  but  that 
is  not  enough.  Doubtless  Bishop  Fowler  read  in  some  book  or 
magazine  article  by  a  truthful  writer  that  on  the  day  Lincoln 
submitted  the  Emancipation  proclamation  to  his  Cabinet,  he 
first  read  in  the  presence  of  the  Cabinet  a  chapter  in  the  Bible. 
It  would  not  have  required  very  much  of  investigation  to  have 
convinced  Bishop  Fowler  that  what  Lincoln  really  read  was 
not  the  Bible,  but  Artemus  Ward.  He  did  not  intend  to  lie 
about  it.  He  picked  up  the  account  from  some  other  speaker 
who  had  heard  or  read  that  Lincoln  read  a  chapter  from  some 
book,  and  thought  that  the  Bible  was  the  proper  book  to  read 
on  an  occasion  of  that  character.  Neither  the  speaker  nor 
Bishop  Fowler  intended  to  be  untruthful,  but  neither  of  them 
had  any  training  in  or  inclination  toward  historical  investi 
gation.  It  would  be  easy  to  guess  that  a  thousand  Methodist 
preachers  and  some  others  have  retold  the  story  on  the  author 
ity  of  Bishop  Fowler.  And  that  is  far  from  being  the  only 
inaccuracy  in  the  lecture.  Indeed,  it  shows  throughout  how 
much  it  grew  "  by  the  natural  process  of  accretion  and  attrac 
tion  "  and  how  little  by  the  verification  of  the  facts. 

This  lecture  is  cited  because  it  is  in  many  respects  the  very 
best  of  its  type,  as  it  is  probably  also  the  most  noted,  and 
one  that  was  delivered  to  more  people  than  any  other  on 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  does  not  suffice  to  rely  upon  any  second  authorities  in 


THE  RULES  OF  EVIDENCE          113 

investigations  of  this  character,  nor  to  accept  the  statements  of 
even  truthful  witnesses  without  some  sifting  of  the  evidence. 

With  this  in  mind,  we  come  to  what  is  the  most  crucial 
and  difficult  of  all  the  incidents  bearing  upon  our  inquiry — 
the  incident  reported  to  Dr.  Holland  by  President  Bateman. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT 

HON.  NEWTON  BATEMAN  was  for  many  years  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  for  the  State  of  Illinois,  being  chosen  to 
that  position  in  1858  and  holding  the  place  with  one  brief 
intermission  for  fourteen  years.  He  was  then  elected  Presi 
dent  of  Knox  College  and  served  with  distinction  in  that 
capacity  for  seventeen  years.  He  knew  Lincoln  well.  He 
was  small  in  stature,  and  Lincoln  was  very  tall.  Lincoln  used 
to  introduce  Bateman  to  friends,  saying,  "  This  is  my  little 
friend,  the  big  schoolmaster  of  Illinois."  He  was,  perhaps,  the 
last  man  to  shake  hands  with  Abraham  Lincoln  as  Lincoln  was 
leaving  Springfield,  and  he  was  one  of  the  pallbearers  at 
Lincoln's  funeral.  The  version  of  Lincoln's  Farewell  Address 
which  was  published  in  the  Illinois  State  Journal  was  printed 
on  the  day  following  Lincoln's  departure  and  was  reproduced 
from  Dr.  Bateman's  memory  of  it.  Although  it  varies  from 
the  official  report  it  appears  to  have  been  a  very  nearly  ac 
curate  report  of  what  Lincoln  actually  said  as  judged  by 
Lincoln's  own  reproduction  of  the  address. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  difficulties  which 
Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  met  in  Springfield  when  he  journeyed 
thither  in  quest  of  material  on  the  Life  of  Lincoln.  To  his 
great  satisfaction  he  was  able  to  obtain  from  Mr.  Bateman  an 
incident  which  has  become  the  corner-stone  of  a  thousand 
Lincoln  eulogies.  It  is  here  reproduced  entire : 

"  Mr.  Newton  Bateman,1  Superintendent  of  Public  In 
struction  for  the  State  of  Illinois,  occupied  a  room  adjoining 

1  Newton  Bateman  was  born  at  Fairfield,  New  York,  July  27,  1822, 
and  migrated  with  his  parents  to  Illinois  in  his  boyhood.  He  was  grad 
uated  from  Illinois  College,  in  Jacksonville,  in  1843,  and  was  honored 
as  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  alumni  of  that  institution.  ^  He  first  knew 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  1847,  and  knew  him  with  increasing  intimacy  during 

114 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  115 

and  opening  into  the  Executive  Chamber.  Frequently  this 
door  was  open  during  Mr.  Lincoln's  receptions;  and  through 
out  the  seven  months  or  more  of  his  occupation  Mr.  Bateman 
saw  him  nearly  every  day.  Often  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  tired 
he  closed  his  door  against  all  intrusion,  and  called  Mr.  Bateman 
into  his  room  for  a  quiet  talk.  On  one  of  these  occasions  Mr. 
Lincoln  took  up  a  book  containing  a  careful  canvass  of  the 
city  of  Springfield  in  which  he  lived,  showing  the  candidate 
for  whom  each  citizen  had  declared  it  his  intention  to  vote  in 
the  approaching  election.  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  had,  doubt 
less  at  his  own  request,  placed  the  result  of  the  canvass  in  his 
hands.  This  was  toward  the  close  of  October,  and  only  a  few 
days  before  the  election.  Calling  Mr.  Bateman  to  a  seat  at  his 
side,  having  previously  locked  all  doors,  he  said :  *  Let  us  look 
over  this  book.  I  wish  particularly  to  see  how  the  ministers  of 
Springfield  are  going  to  vote.'  The  leaves  were  turned,  one  by 
one,  and  as  the  names  were  examined  Mr.  Lincoln  frequently 
asked  if  this  one  and  that  were  not  a  minister,  or  an  elder, 
or  a  member  of  such  or  such  a  church,  and  sadly  expressed  his 

the  years  of  1859  and  1860  when  Mr.  Bateman  was  in  Springfield.  Mr. 
Bateman  served  as  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
continuously  from  1859  to  1875,  except  for  the  single  term  1863-65. 
During  his  administration  the  school  system  of  Illinois  made  notable 
progress,  and  he  is  remembered  as  having  done  large  things  for  the 
educational  system  of  his  State.  He  was  the  author  of  the  plan  for 
the  education  of  all  the  children  of  all  the  people  of  the  State  at  the 
expense  of  all  the  property  of  the  State.  He  wrought  his  system  into 
the  new  constitution  of  Illinois,  adopted  in  1871,  while  he  was  at  the 
zenith  of  his  power.  He  was  repeatedly  re-elected,  his  defeat  in  1862 
being  a  defeat  shared  with  the  whole  Republican  ticket  of  the  State 
in  an  off-year  election  when  nearly  the  whole  North,  weary  of  the  war 
which  had  scarcely  begun,  defeated  partly  by  hostility  and  partly  by 
lethargy  the  party  and  the  policies  that  had  sent  Lincoln  to  the  White 
House;  and  Bateman  was  triumphantly  re-elected  when  Lincoln  was 
re-elected,  and  for  many  terms  thereafter.  He  established  the  Normal 
School  system  of  the  State ;  and  his  work  was  monumental  in  the  life 
of  the  State  University.  Few  men  deserve  so  well  to  be  remembered 
with  honor  in  Illinois. 

At  the  close  of  his  long  term  of  service  as  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  he  became  President  of  Khox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois,  from 
1875  to  1893.  He  was  small  in  stature,  and  by  his  friends  was  familiarly 
called  "  Little  Newt,"  but  was  held  in  high  regard  as  a  man  of  honor 
and  an  educator  of  note.  Besides  his  published  reports  and  addresses, 
he  compiled  a  large  encyclopedia  of  men  of  Illinois, — a  kind  of  "  Who's 
Who"  of  much  value.  His  family  at  one  time  proposed  to  gather  and 
issue  a  memorial  volume  of  his  addresses,  but  the  plan  appears  not  to 
have  been  carried  out.  He  died  of  angina  pectoris  at  Galesburg,  October 
21,  1897. 


116    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

surprise  on  receiving  an  affirmative  answer.  In  that  manner 
they  went  through  the  book,  and  then  he  closed  it  and  sat 
silently  and  for  some  minutes  regarding  a  memorandum  in 
pencil  which  lay  before  him.  At  length  he  turned  to  Mr. 
Bateman  with  a  face  full  of  sadness,  and  said:  *  Here  are 
twenty-three,  ministers,  of  different  denominations,  and  all  of 
them  are  against  me  but  three;  and  here  are  a  great  many 
prominent  members  of  the  churches,  a  very  large  majority  of 
whom  are  against  me.  Mr.  Bateman,  I  am  not  a  Christian — 
God  knows  I  would  be  one — but  I  have  carefully  read  the 
Bible,  and  I  do  not  so  understand  this  book ' ;  and  he  drew 
from  his  bosom  a  pocket  New  Testament.  '  These  men  well 
know/  he  continued,  *  that  I  am  for  freedom  in  the  territories, 
freedom  everywhere  as  far  as  the  Constitution  and  laws  will 
permit,  and  that  my  opponents  are  for  slavery.  They  know 
this,  and  yet,  with  this  book  in  their  hands,  in  the  light  of 
which  human  bondage  cannot  live  a  moment,  they  are  going  to 
vote  against  me.  I  do  not  understand  it  at  all.' 

"  Here  Mr.  Lincoln  paused — paused  for  long  minutes,  his 
features  surcharged  with  emotion.  Then  he  rose  and  walked 
up  and  down  the  room  in  the  effort  to  retain  or  regain  his 
self-possession.  Stopping  at  last,  he  said,  with  a  trembling 
voice  and  his  cheeks  wet  with  tears :  '  I  know  there  is  a  God, 
and  that  He  hates  injustice  and  slavery.  I  see  the  storm  com 
ing,  and  I  know  that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has  a  place 
and  work  for  me — and  I  think  He  has — I  believe  I  am  ready. 
I  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  everything.  I  know  I  am  right 
because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right,  for  Christ  teaches  it, 
and  Christ  is  God.  I  have  told  them  that  a  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand,  and  Christ  and  reason  say  the 
same;  and  they  will  find  it  so.  Douglas  don't  care  whether 
slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down,  but  God  cares,  and  human 
ity  cares,  and  I  care ;  and  with  God's  help  I  shall  not  fail.  I 
may  not  see  the  end ;  but  it  will  come,  and  I  shall  be  vindicated ; 
and  these  men  will  find  that  they  have  not  read  their  Bibles 
aright/ 

"  Much  of  this  was  uttered  as  if  he  were  speaking  to  him 
self,  and  with  a  sad  and  earnest  solemnity  of  manner  impos 
sible  to  be  described.  After  a  pause,  he  resumed :  '  Doesn't 
it  appear  strange  that  men  can  ignore  the  moral  aspects  of 
this  contest?  A  revelation  could  not  make  it  plainer  to  me 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  117 

that  slavery  or  the  government  must  be  destroyed.  The 
future  would  be  something  awful,  as  I  look  at  it,  but  for  this 
rock  on  which  I  stand  [alluding  to  the  Testament  which  he 
still  held  in  his  hand]  especially  with  the  knowledge  of  how 
these  ministers  are  going  to  vote.  It  seems  as  if  God  had 
borne  with  this  thing  [slavery]  until  the  very  teachers  of 
religion  have  come  to  defend  it  from  the  Bible,  and  to  claim 
for  it  a  divine  character  and  sanction;  and  now  the  cup  of 
iniquity  is  full,  and  the  vials  of  wrath  will  be  poured  out.'  " 
— HOLLAND  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  236-38. 

Dr.  J.  G.  Holland  was  an  author  of  ability  and  char 
acter.  His  Life  of  Lincoln  was  up  to  the  time  of  its  publica 
tion  far  and  away  the  best  that  had  appeared.  Even  Herndon 
and  Lamon  are  compelled  to  speak  of  it  with  respect.  Lamon 
says :  "  Out  of  the  mass  of  work  which  appeared,  of  one  only 
— Dr.  Holland's — is  it  possible  to  speak  with  any  degree  of 
respect."  That  this  also  represented  substantially  the  opinion 
of  Herndon  is  clearly  in  evidence.  With  two  such  names  as 
Newton  Bateman  and  J.  G.  Holland  supporting  it,  an  incident 
of  this  character  was  certain  to  carry  great  weight.  It  can 
be  found  more  or  less  abridged  and  in  some  cases  garbled  and 
enlarged  in  any  one  of  a  hundred  books  and  of  a  thousand 
or  probably  ten  thousand  Lincoln's  Day  addresses.  This  report 
was  the  direct  occasion  for  the  assembling  of  a  considerable 
mass  of  opposing  evidence  which  we  shall  find  in  succeeding 
chapters.  It  was  attacked  publicly  and  directly  by  Ward  Hill 
Lamon  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln  in  1872.  The  following  is  Mr. 
Lamon's  reply: 

"  Mr.  Newton  Bateman  is  reported  to  have  said  that  a  few 
days  before  the  Presidential  election  in  1860,  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  into  his  office,  closed  the  door  against  intrusion,  and  pro 
posed  to  examine  a  book  which  had  been  furnished  him,  at  his 
own  request,  '  Containing  a  careful  canvass  of  the  city  of 
Springfield,  showing  the  candidate  for  whom  each  citizen  had 
declared  his  intention  to  vote  at  the  approaching  election. 
He  ascertained  that  only  three  ministers  of  the  gospel,  out 
of  twenty-three,  would  vote  for  him,  and  that,  of  the  promi 
nent  church-members,  a  very  large  majority  were  against  him/ 


118     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Mr.  Bateman  does  not  say  so  directly,  but  the  inference  is  plain 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  previously  known  what  were  the 
sentiments  of  the  Christian  people  who  lived  with  him  in 
Springfield :  he  had  never  before  taken  the  trouble  to  inquire 
whether  they  were  for  him  or  against  him.  At  all  events,  when 
he  made  the  discovery  out  of  the  book,  he  wept,  and  declared 
that  he  '  did  not  understand  it  at  all.'  He  drew  from  his 
bosom  a  pocket  New  Testament,  and,  '  with  a  trembling  voice 
and  his  cheeks  wet  with  tears/  quoted  it  against  his  political 
opponents  generally,  and  especially  against  Douglas.  He 
professed  to  believe  that  the  opinions  adopted  by  him  and  his 
party  were  derived  from  the  teachings  of  Christ;  averred  that 
Christ  was  God;  and,  speaking  of  the  Testament  which  he  car 
ried  in  his  bosom,  called  it  '  this  rock,  on  which  I  stand.' 
When  Mr.  Bateman  expressed  surprise,  and  told  him  that  his 
friends  generally  were  ignorant  that  he  entertained  such  senti 
ments,  he  gave  this  answer  quickly :  '  I  know  they  are :  I  am 
obliged  to  appear  different  to  them.'  Mr.  Bateman  is  a  re 
spectable  citizen,  whose  general  reputation  for  truth  and 
veracity  is  not  to  be  impeached;  but  his  story,  as  reported  in 
Holland's  Life,  is  so  inconsistent  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  whole 
character,  that  it  must  be  rejected  as  altogether  incredible. 
From  the  time  of  the  Democratic  split  in  the  Baltimore  Con 
vention,  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  well  as  every  other  politician  of  the 
smallest  sagacity,  knew  that  his  success  was  as  certain  as  any 
future  could  be.  At  the  end  of  October,  most  of  the  States 
had  clearly  voted  in  a  way  which  left  no  lingering  doubts  of 
the  final  result  in  November.  If  there  ever  was  a  time  in  his 
life  when  ambition  charmed  his  whole  heart, — if  it  could  ever 
be  said  of  him  that  '  hope  elevated  and  joy  brightened  his 
crest,'  it  was  on  the  eve  of  that  election  which  he  saw  was  to 
lift  him  at  last  to  the  high  place  for  which  he  had  sighed  and 
struggled  so  long.  It  was  not  then  that  he  would  mourn  and 
weep  because  he  was  in  danger  of  not  getting  the  votes  of  the 
ministers  and  members  of  the  churches  he  had  known  during 
many  years  for  his  steadfast  opponents :  he  did  not  need  them, 
and  had  not  expected  them.  Those  who  understood  him  best 
are  very  sure  that  he  never,  under  any  circumstances,  could 
have  fallen  into  such  weakness — not  even  when  his  fortunes 
were  at  the  lowest  point  of  depression — as  to  play  the  part 
of  a  hypocrite  for  their  support.  Neither  is  it  possible  that 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  119 

he  was  at  any  loss  about  the  reasons  which  religious  men  had 
for  refusing  him  their  support;  and,  if  he  had  said  that  he 
could  not  understand  it  at  all,  he  must  have  spoken  falsely. 
But  the  worst  part  of  the  tale  is  Mr.  Lincoln's  acknowledg 
ment  that  his  '  friends  generally  were  deceived  concerning  his 
religious  sentiments,  and  that  he  was  obliged  to  appear  dif 
ferent  to  them/ 

"  According  to  this  version,  which  has  had  considerable 
currency,  he  carried  a  New  Testament  in  his  bosom,  carefully 
hidden  from  his  intimate  associates:  he  believed  that  Christ 
was  God;  yet  his  friends  understood  him  to  deny  the  verity 
of  the  gospel :  he  based  his  political  doctrines  on  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible;  yet  before  all  men,  except  Mr.  Bateman,  he 
habitually  acted  the  part  of  an  unbeliever  and  reprobate,  be 
cause  he  was  '  obliged  to  appear  different  to  them.'  How 
obliged?  What  compulsion  required  him  to  deny  that  Christ 
was  God  if  he  really  believed  Him  to  be  divine?  Or  did  he  put 
his  political  necessities  above  the  obligations  of  truth,  and 
oppose  Christianity  against  his  convictions,  that  he  might  win 
the  favor  of  its  enemies?  It  may  be  that  his  mere  silence  was 
sometimes  misunderstood;  but  he  never  made  an  express 
avowal  of  any  religious  opinion  which  he  did  not  entertain. 
He  did  not  '  appear  different '  at  one  time  from  what  he  was 
at  another,  and  certainly  he  never  put  on  infidelity  as  a  mere 
mask  to  conceal  his  Christian  character  from  the  world.  There 
is  no  dealing  with  Mr.  Bateman,  except  by  a  flat  contradiction. 
Perhaps  his  memory  was  treacherous,  or  his  imagination  led 
him  astray,  or,  peradventure,  he  thought  a  fraud  no  harm  if 
it  gratified  the  strong  desire  of  the  public  for  proofs  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  orthodoxy.  It  is  nothing  to  the  purpose  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  once  or  twice  that  he  thought  this  or  that  portion 
of  the  Scripture  was  the  product  of  divine  inspiration;  for  he 
was  one  of  the  class  who  hold  that  all  truth  is  inspired,  and 
that  every  human  being  with  a  mind  and  a  conscience  is  a 
prophet.  He  would  have  agreed  much  more  readily  with  one 
who  taught  that  Newton's  discoveries,  or  Bacon's  philosophy, 
or  one  of  his  own  speeches,  were  the  works  of  men  divinely 
inspired  above  their  fellows.  But  he  never  told  anyone  that 
he  accepted  Jesus  Christ,  or  performed  a  single  one  of  the  acts 
which  necessarily  follow  upon  such  a  conviction.  At  Spring 
field  and  at  Washington  he  was  beset  on  the  one  hand  by 


120     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

political  priests,  and  on  the  other  by  honest  and  prayerful 
Christians.  He  despised  the  former,  respected  the  latter,  and 
had  use  for  both.  He  said  with  characteristic  irreverence,  that 
he  would  not  undertake  '  to  run  the  churches  by  military 
authority ' ;  but  he  was,  nevertheless,  alive  to  the  importance 
of  letting  the  churches  '  run  themselves  in  the  interest  of  his 
party/  Indefinite  expressions  about  '  Divine  Providence/  the 
'  justice  of  God,'  '  the  favor  of  the  Most  High,'  were  easy, 
and  not  inconsistent  with  his  religious  notion.  In  this,  ac 
cordingly,  he  indulged  freely;  but  never  in  all  that  time  did 
he  let  fall  from  his  lips  or  his  pen  an  expression  which  remotely 
implied  the  slightest  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Saviour  of  men." — LAMON:  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  499-502. 


Confronted  by  an  irreconcilable  contradiction  like  this,  the 
easiest  way  is  to  cut  the  knot,  and  this  may  be  done  by  any  one 
of  several  methods.  We  may  say  that,  while  Lamon  and 
Herndon  were  truthful  men,  their  reputation  for  veracity, 
good  as  it  was,  is  less  than  that  of  Bateman  and  Holland,  and 
we  prefer  to  believe  the  latter  pair.  Or,  we  may  say  that,  while 
Bateman  knew  Lincoln  well,  both  Herndon  and  Lamon  knew 
him  much  better,  and  were  better  able  to  judge  what  Lincoln 
would  have  said.  Or,  we  may  say  that  Bateman  was  present 
when  Lincoln  spoke,  and  Holland  was  present  when  Bateman 
related  the  interview,  and  neither  Herndon  nor  Lamon  was 
present  on  either  occasion,  and  we  will  believe  the  one  credible 
witness  who  was  actually  there,  and  whose  positive  testimony 
outweighs  any  possible  volume  of  negative  testimony  on  the 
part  of  men  who  were  not  present,  and  who  only  imagine  what 
Mr.  Lincoln  would  probably  have  said.  Or,  we  may  say  that 
in  the  light  of  the  inherent  improbability  of  such  an  utterance 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  determined  by  a  comparison  of 
this  alleged  utterance  with  his  authentic  statements,  we 'can 
not  accept  it,  even  though  the  two  men  who  vouch,  the  one  for 
its  utterance  and  the  other  for  its  transmission,  are  men  of 
exceptional  veracity.  Or,  we  may  say  that  in  such  a  conflict  of 
direct  evidence  and  inherent  improbability,  and  the  mutual  op 
position  of  honest  men  who  were  in  a  position  to  know  some- 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  121 

thing  about  the  religious  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  decide. 

We  will  not  seek  by  any  of  these  convenient  methods  to 
cut  the  knot,  but  endeavor  to  untie  it.  We  are  fortunate  in 
having  some  collateral  evidence  after  the  fact. 

Herndon  had  awaited  the  publication  of  Holland's  book 
with  great  eagerness,  and  he  was  pleased  with  it  as  a  whole. 
But  the  Bateman  incident  roused  his  wrath.  To  him  it  made 
Lincoln  a  hypocrite,  dissembling  a  Christian  faith,  which  he 
had  no  good  reason  to  conceal,  beneath  a  pretense  of  infidelity, 
which  was  not,  as  Herndon  believed,  a  profession  that  would 
have  helped  him. 

Herndon  promptly  walked  over  to  the  State  House  and 
interviewed  Mr.  Bateman.  "  I  instantly  sought  Mr.  Bate 
man,"  he  said,  "  and  found  him  in  his  office.  I  spoke  to  him 
politely  and  kindly,  and  he  spoke  to  me  in  the  same  manner. 
I  said  substantially  to  him  that  Mr.  Holland,  in  order  to  make 
Mr.  Lincoln  a  technical  Christian,  had  made  him  a  hypocrite." 

What  Bateman  said  to  Herndon  he  was  forbidden  to  pub 
lish,  but  the  inference  is  ineluctable  that  he  repudiated,  in 
part,  the  interview  with  Holland,  but  did  it  on  condition  that 
Herndon  should  not  publish  the  statement  in  a  way  that  would 
raise  the  issue  of  veracity  between  himself  and  Holland. 

This  was  in  the  autumn  of  1865.  In  the  spring  of  1866, 
Herndon  again  called  upon  Bateman,  but  got  no  farther. 

As  the  controversy  waxed  furious,  Herndon  made  further 
and  insistent  efforts  to  obtain  from  Bateman  a  statement  which 
could  be  made  to  the  public.  Herndon  preserved  notes  of  the 
interviews,  which  he  dated,  December  3,  12,  and  28,  1866. 
Bateman  still  refused  to  emerge  from  his  silence.  One  can 
imagine  Herndon  in  his  yellow  trousers  twice  rolled  up  at 
the  bottom,  hitching  his  chair  a  little  closer  to  the  little  super 
intendent,  and  with  long,  skinny  forefinger  outstretched,  prob 
ing  with  insistent  cross-examination  into  the  innermost  recesses 
of  the  ipsissima  versa  of  the  interview  with  Lincoln  and  the 
subsequent  one  with  Holland.  Whether  he  and  Mr.  Bateman 
continued  to  address  each  other  politely  is  not  known,  but 
Herndon  endeavored  first  to  persuade  and  afterward  to  force, 


122     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Bateman  to  do  one  of  three  things, — to  avow  over  his  own  sig 
nature  the  story  as  Holland  told  it;  to  repudiate  the  interview 
and  throw  the  responsibility  upon  Holland;  or  to  permit 
Herndon  to  publish  what  Bateman  had  told  to  him.  Bateman 
would  do  none  of  these  three  things.  If  he  did  the  first, 
Herndon  would  accuse  him  of  falsehood;  if  he  did  the  second, 
Holland  would  accuse  him  of  falsehood;  and  if  he  did  the 
third,  he  would  become  the  central  figure  in  a  controversy 
that  already  had  become  more  than  red-hot.  He  refused  to 
say  anything,  and  announced  to  all  comers  that  the  publicity 
was  "  extremely  distasteful  "  to  him. 

Herndon  went  as  far  as  he  could  toward  making  public 
what  Bateman  told  to  him.  He  published  the  following  state 
ment,  designed  to  throw  the  greater  part  of  the  blame  upon 
Holland,  but  to  force  Bateman  to  relate  to  the  public  what 
Bateman  had  said  to  him,  and  what  he  had  written  down  and 
held  ready  to  produce : 

"  I  cannot  now  detail  what  Mr.  Bateman  said,  as  it  was 
a  private  conversation,  and  I  am  forbidden  to  make  use  of  it 
in  public.  If  some  good  gentleman  can  only  get  the  seal  of 
secrecy  removed,  I  can  show  what  was  said  and  done.  On 
my  word,  the  world  may  take  it  for  granted  that  Holland  js 
wrong;  that  he  does  not  state  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  correctly. 
Mr.  Bateman,  if  correctly  represented  in  Holland's  Life  of 
Lincoln,  is  the  only  man,  the  sole  and  only  man,  who  dare  say 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ  of  God,  as 
the  Christian  world  represents.  This  is  not  a  pleasant  situa 
tion  for  Mr.  Bateman.  I  have  notes  and  dates  of  our  con 
versation  ;  and  the  world  will  sometime  know  who  is  truthful, 
and  who  is  otherwise.  I  doubt  whether  Bateman  is  correctly 
represented  by  Holland." — LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  496. 

Mr.  Bateman  was,  indeed,  in  an  uncomfortable  position 
and  any  one  of  the  three  ways  out  of  it  seemed  likely  to  make 
it  still  more  uncomfortable.  He  continued  to  maintain  a 
profound  silence.  Years  afterward  when  Arnold  was  pre 
paring  his  Life  of  Lincoln  for  the  press  and  Arnold  asked 
him  concerning  the  truth  of  the  incident  as  recorded  by 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  123 

Holland,  he  replied  with  extreme  brevity  that  it  was  "  sub 
stantially  correct."  (Arnold:  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  179). 

The  only  portion  of  Bateman' s  admission  to  Herndon 
which  Bateman  finally,  and  with  great  reluctance,  consented  to 
have  published,  was  one  which  covered  the  alleged  utterance 
"  Christ  is  God."  It  was  a  letter  written  in  1867,  and  marked 
"  Confidential."  In  this  letter  Bateman  said : 

"  He  [Lincoln]  w'as  applying  the  principles  of  moral  and 
religious  truth  to  the  duties  of  the  hour,  the  condition  of  the 
country,  and  the  conduct  of  public  men — ministers  of  the 
gospel.  I  had  no  thought  of  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy,  Uni- 
tarianism,  Trinitarianism,  or  any  other  ism,  during  the  whole 
conversation,  and  I  don't  suppose  or  believe  he  had." 

This  is  a  guarded  letter,  but  it  is  sufficiently  specific  for 
our  purposes.  If  the  conversation  between  Bateman  and  Lin 
coln  was  of  this  character,  with  nothing  to  distinguish  the  view 
of  Lincoln  as  Unitarian  or  Trinitarian,  Lincoln  certainly  did 
not  say: 

"  I  know  I  am  right  because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right, 
for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is  God." 

It  is  evident  that  Bateman,  crowded  by  Herndon  in  re 
peated  cross-examination,  came  as  near  to  repudiating  those 
parts  of  the  interview  to  which  Herndon  objected  as  he  could 
do  without  raising  publicly  the  issue  of  veracity  between  him 
self  and  Holland.  The  attitude  of  Dr.  Bateman  in  this  matter 
forbids  us  to  believe  that  the  story  as  it  stands  in  Holland's 
book  can  be  true. 

Bateman  is  not  mentioned  in  the  index  of  Nicolay  and 
Hay's  Life  of  Lincoln,  and  it  is  practically  certain  that  they 
did  not  credit  the  incident. 

What,  under  these  circumstances,  shall  be  our  judgment 
concerning  this  most  hotly  contested  of  all  incidents  concern 
ing  the  religious  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln? 

The  incident  had  a  basis  of  fact.  Neither  Bateman  nor 
Jlolland  would  have  created  such  a  story  out  of  whole  cloth. 


124     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

But  Bateman  was  under  very  strong  temptation  to  enlarge 
upon  the  incident,  and  had  had  five  years  in  which  to  magnify 
it  in  his  own  mind.  The  then  recent  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  the  strong  desire  of  Christian  people  for  a  clear  statement 
of  his  faith,  made  it  easy  to  color  the  recollection  and  sketch 
in  details,  which  did  not  seem  to  be  important  departures  from 
the  truth  when  related  in  verbal  conversation,  but  which  had 
a  different  look  when  they  appeared  in  cold  type.  Holland, 
who  was  a  writer  of  fiction  as  well  as  history,  did  not  fail  to 
embellish  the  story  as  Bateman  told  it  to  him.  He  probably 
did  not  write  it  down  at  the  time,  but  recalled  it  afterward 
from  memory,  and  in  his  final  report  it  underwent  additional 
coloring  and  the  sketching  in  of  detail. 

Neither  of  these  two  men  intentionally  falsified,  but  be 
tween  the  two  the  story  was  materially  enlarged,  and  there 
was  an  undistributed  margin  of  error  between  the  original 
event  as  it  occurred  in  1860  and  the  very  pretty  story  which 
Holland  printed  in  1865.  Neither  Holland  nor  Bateman  cared, 
probably,  to  face  too  searching  an  inquiry  as  to  how  that 
enlargement  had  come. 

Dr.  Bateman  was  a  man  of  probity  and  upright  character. 
He  never  willfully  misrepresented.  But  he  had  a  rhetorical 
mind;  not  only  his  style,  but  his  mind,  was  rhetorical.  He 
embellished  his  narratives  because  it  was  in  him  to  do  so. 
The  two  reports  which  he  made  of  Lincoln's  farewell  address 
in  Springfield  2  showed,  both  of  them,  such  embellishments,3 
and  he  was  as  unconscious  that  he  in  later  years  enlarged 
upon  his  own  first  report  as  he  was  that  his  first  report  en 
larged  upon  the  address  itself.  These  enlargements  were 
slight,  and  did  not  destroy  nor  greatly  alter  the  sense;  but 
his  changes  never  tended  to  simplicity.  He  was  a  master  of 
good  English  style,  but  it  was  a  grander,  more  rhetorical  style 
than  that  of  Lincoln.  Lincoln,  after  receiving  his  special 

2  Bateman's  version  of  the  Farewell  Address,  as  reported  in  the  State 
Journal,  was  that  accepted  by  Herndon,  and,  with  its  more  profound  recog 
nition  of  God's  providential  care,  is  given  in  Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln, 
p.  506.     It  is  repeated  in  his  Recollections,  p.  31. 

3  For  these  two  reports  and  that  of  Lincoln  and  Hay,  see  the  Appen 
dix. 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  125 

notice  of  nomination,  submitted  his  letter  of  acceptance  to 
Bateman,  and  at  Bateman's  suggestion  changed  a  split  in 
finitive.  Lincoln  knew  that  Bateman  was  an  authority  on 
good  English,  and  respected  his  opinion  and  valued  his  friend 
ship.  Whatever  enlargements  Bateman's  memory  made  upon 
his  interview  with  Lincoln  were  made  without  intent  to  de 
ceive  ;  and  whatever  Holland  added  was  added  without  intent 
to  deceive.  But  the  interview  of  1860  and  the  story  about  it 
in  Holland's  book  five  years  later  have  between  them  a  dis 
crepancy  which  must  be  distributed  in  a  ratio  which  we  are 
not  able  positively  to  determine  between  two  good  and  truthful 
men,  each  of  whom  enlarged  a  little  upon  the  material  that  was 
given  to  him. 

A  final  evidence  that  Bateman  saw  no  way  to  remedy  the 
situation  by  telling  the  public  exactly  what  occurred  in  his 
interview  with  Lincoln  in  1860,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  while 
he  was  President  of  Knox  College  he  had  occasion  to  prepare 
and  deliver  there  and  elsewhere  a  carefully  written  lecture  on 
"  Abraham  Lincoln."  Every  generation  of  Knox  College 
students  heard,  at  least  once,  that  famous  oration.  That  lec 
ture  contains  little  else  than  Bateman's  own  personal  reminis 
cences,  and  is  an  interesting  and  valuable  document.  For  our 
present  purpose  it  is  chiefly  valuable  in  this,  that  it  contains 
not  one  word  about  the  interview  which  had  forever  associated 
the  name  of  Newton  Bateman  with  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
The  fact  that  Bateman  felt  compelled  to  omit  it  altogether 
from  that  oft-repeated  lecture  on  Lincoln  is  a  sufficient  reason 
why  no  one  else  should  ever  use  it. 

Precisely  what  did  Bateman  tell  Herndon  that  he  had  told 
to  Holland,  which  led  Herndon  to  tell  the  public  that  Holland 
misrepresented  Bateman  ?  We  do  not  know  precisely.  What 
became  of  Herndon's  carefully  cherished  notes  of  his  five 
interviews  with  Bateman  is  not  known,4  but  we  are  not  left 

4  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik,  who  was  associated  with  Herndon  in  the 
authorship  of  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  and  who  has  Herndon's  papers,  has 
made  diligent  search  for  me  in  the  effort  to  locate  the  notes  of  these 
interviews.  Herndon  certainly  desired  to  preserve  them,  and  desired 
that  they  should  be  published.  But  thus  far  they  have  not  been  found, 
and  presumably  are  not  in  existence. 


126     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

wholly  to  conjecture.  Though  Herndon  was  forbidden  to  tell 
what  Bateman  told  to  him,  he  came  as  near  to  it  as  he  could 
do  without  open  violation  of  his  pledge  of  secrecy.  In  his 
own  Life  of  Lincoln,  published  in  1889,  he  inserted  a  footnote 
in  which  he  said : 

"  One  of  what  Lincoln  regarded  as  the  remarkable  fea 
tures  of  his  canvass  for  President  was  the  attitude  of  some 
of  his  neighbors  in  Springfield.  A  poll  of  the  voters  had  been 
made  in  a  little  book  and  given  to  him.  On  running  over 
the  names  he  found  that  the  greater  part  of  the  clergy  of  the 
city — in  fact  all  but  three — were  against  him.  This  depressed 
him  somewhat,  and  he  called  in  Dr.  Newton  Bateman,  who 
as  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  occupied  the  room  ad 
joining  his  own  in  the  State  House,  and  whom  he  habitually 
addressed  as  '  Mr.  Schoolmaster.'  He  commented  bitterly  on 
the  attitude  of  the  preachers  and  many  of  their  followers, 
who,  pretending  to  be  believers  in  the  Bible  and  God-fearing 
Christians,  yet  by  their  votes  demonstrated  that  they  cared  not 
whether  slavery  was  voted  up  or  down.  '  God  cares  and 
humanity  cares/  he  reflected,  *  and  if  they  do  not  they  surely 
have  not  read  their  Bible  aright/  " — HERNDON  :  Life  of  Lin 
coln,  III,  466-67. 

To  accept  this  as  containing  the  essential  part  of  the  inter 
view  between  Lincoln  and  Bateman  does  not  involve  our  pre 
ferring  the  statement  of  Herndon  to  that  of  Bateman,  for 
we  have  no  definite  statement  of  Bateman.  Bateman,  under 
close  examination,  told  Herndon  what  he  remembered  that 
Lincoln  told  him,  and  Herndon  promised  not  to  tell  it  without 
Bateman's  permission.  Herndon  did  tell,  however,  that  it 
was  very  different  from  Holland's  story,  and  he  published  this 
in  Lamon's  book  in  1872  and  Bateman  did  not  deny  it.  He 
published  the  above  quoted  and  additional  note  in  his  own  book 
in  1889,  while  Bateman  was  living,  and  Bateman  did  not 
protest.  We  cannot,  therefore,  be  far  from  the  truth  if  we 
accept  the  above  and  stop  there. 

Unless  the  notes  of  Herndon's  five  interviews  with  Bate 
man  shall  be  found  and  published,  this  is  probably  the  nearest 


THE  BATEMAN  INCIDENT  127 

we  shall  ever  come  to  knowing  what  Bateman  told  Herndon 
that  Lincoln  had  said  to  him.  If  those  notes  shall  be  found, 
they  may  amplify  the  conversation  but  cannot  be  expected 
materially  to  modify  it.  This  is  all  that  it  is  safe  to  assume 
of  Lincoln's  confession  of  faith  to  Bateman.  Whoever  adds 
to  it  the  glosses  of  the  Holland  biography  does  it  at  his  own 
risk. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  LAMON  BIOGRAPHY 

WARD  HILL  LAMON  was  for  many  years  a  close  friend  of 
Lincoln.1  Their  relations  began  in  1847  when  Lamon  settled 
at  Danville  and  continued  until  Lincoln's  death.  Both  there 
and  at  Bloomington,  Lamon  was  Lincoln's  local  associate  and 
so-called  partner.  When  Lincoln  voted  at  the  Presidential 
election  of  1860,  the  men  who  accompanied  him  to  the  polls 
were  William  H.  Herndon,  Ward  Hill  Lamon,  and  Col. 
Elmer  Ellsworth.  When  Lincoln  was  elected  and  his  political 
friends  had  slated  Lamon  for  a  foreign  mission,  Lincoln  ap 
pointed  him  Marshal  of  the  District  of  Columbia  that  he  might 
have  him  close  at  hand.  He  was  a  member  of  the  party  which 
accompanied  Lincoln  to  Washington,  and  when  through  ap 
parent  danger  of  assassination  the  route  was  changed  and 
Lincoln  slipped  into  Washington  with  a  single  companion,  it 
was  Lamon  whom  he  chose  to  accompany  him.  Lamon  had 
charge  of  the  arrangements  of  Lincoln's  trip  to  Gettysburg, 
and  accompanied  Lincoln  and  was  in  charge  when  he  visited 
the  battlefield  of  Antietam.  His  book  of  personal  "  Recol 
lections,"  edited  by  his  daughter  and  published  in  1895,  is  full 
of  interest  and  contains  much  of  permanent  value.  His  Life 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  published  in  1872,  is  the  most  bitterly 
denounced  of  all  the  biographies  of  Lincoln.  It  involved  its 
author  and  publisher  in  heavy  financial  loss,  and  the  unsold 
portion  of  the  edition  is  alleged  to  have  been  bought  up  by 
friends  of  Lincoln  and  quietly  destroyed.  Lamon  intended 
to  have  followed  this  volume,  whose  subject-matter  ended  with 
Lincoln's  arrival  in  Washington  in  1861,  with  a  second  volume 
covering  Lincoln's  life  as  President,  but  neither  a  second 
volume  nor  a  second  edition  of  the  first  was  ever  issued. 

1  Lamon  was  a  Virginian  by  birth,  and  was,  in  many  of  his  habits,  a 
very  different  man  from  Lincoln,  but  Lincoln  liked  and  trusted  him. 

128 


THE  LAMON  BIOGRAPHY  129 

How  Lamon,  being  a  friend  of  Lincoln,  could  ever  have 
written  such  a  book  has  been  the  subject  of  much  conjecture. 
Herndon  believed  that  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life  in 
Washington  Lamon  had  become  embittered  against  Lincoln. 
Lamon's  daughter  in  a  magazine  article  on  the  subject  pro 
fessed  her  father's  abiding  friendship  for  Lincoln,  but  main 
tained  that  he  was  endeavoring  to  tell  the  true  story  of  a  great 
life  and  to  recover  the  real  Lincoln  from  the  realm  of  myth 
(Dorothy  Lamon  Teillard:  "  Lincoln  in  Myth  and  in  Fact," 
World's  Work,  February,  1911,  pp.  14040-44). 

The  basis  of  Lamon's  book  is  the  Herndon  manuscripts, 
copies  of  which  Herndon  sold  to  Lamon  for  $2,000  in  1870. 
That  Herndon  bitterly  regretted  the  necessity  of  this  sale, 
there  is  clear  evidence;  but  he  had  come  to  a  condition  of 
great  poverty;  and  there  were  other  reasons  why  it  seemed 
unlikely  that  he  himself  would  ever  write  a  Life  of  Lincoln. 
That  Lamon  himself  wrote  the  book  without  assistance  was 
disputed  from  the  beginning,  and  Herndon  was  accused  of 
being  its  real  author.  In  letters  to  Horace  White  in  1890, 
Herndon  told  the  truth,  as  is  now  believed,  concerning  the 
authorship. 

"  You  regret,  as  well  as  myself,  that  I  sold  my  MSS.  to 
Lamon.  The  reason  why  I  did  so  was  that  I  was  then,  in 
1870-72,  a  poor  devil  and  had  to  sell  to  live.  From  1853  to 
1865  I  spent  all  my  time  and  money  for  the  '  nigger,'  or  rather 
for  Liberty  and  the  Union — lost  my  practice,  went  to  farming, 
and  went  under  in  the  crash  of  1871-73,  and  that,  too,  from 
no  speculations,  vices,  etc.  Today  I  have  to  work  for  to 
morrow's  bread,  and  yet  I  am  a  happy  and  contented  man. 
I  own  a  little  farm  of  sixty-five  acres  and  raise  fruits  for  a 
living.  Now  you  have  the  reasons  for  my  acts. 

"  In  reference  to  Lamon's  book,  I  can  truthfully  say  that 
Chauncey  F.  Black,2  son  of  J.  S.  Black,  wrote  quite  every 
word  of  it.  .  .  .1  have  for  years  been  written  to  by  various 
persons  to  know  why  Lamon  was  so  much  prejudiced  against 

2  Black  was  Lamon's  law  partner  in  Washington  after  the  war.  The 
firm  of  Black,  Lamon,  and  Hovey  did  a  large  business  in  prosecuting 
claims  against  the  Government. 


130     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Lincoln.  The  bitterness,  if  any,  was  not  in  Lamon  so  much 
as  in  Black,  though  I  am  convinced  that  Lamon  was  no  solid, 
firm  friend  of  Lincoln,  especially  during  Lincoln's  adminis 
tration,  or  the  latter  part  of  it." — NEWTON  :  Lincoln  and 
Herndon,  pp.  307-8. 

Herndon  stoutly  denied  having  written  a  single  line  of 
Lamon's  book,  but  he  furnished  the  greater  part  of  the  ma 
terial  in  the  form  of  documents,  and  gave  further  aid  by 
letters  and  suggestions.  Thirteen  years  after  it  was  published 
he  wrote  to  Lamon,  who  was  still  hoping  to  issue  a  new 
biography  which  would  include  the  volume  already  issued 
and  a  second  volume,  and  said : 

"  I  desire  to  see  your  new  Life  win.  Your  first  Life  is 
nearly  suppressed — is  suppressed  or  will  be  by  rings — bears, 
and  like.  Lamon's  first  Life  of  Lincoln  is  the  truest  Life 
that  was  ever  written  of  a  man,  as  I  think.  I  do  not  agree 
to  all  it  says,  and  yet  it  is  the  most  truthful  Life  of  Lincoln 
written,  or  to  be  written  probably,  except  your  second  Life. 
.  .  .  Why,  Lamon,  if  you  and  I  had  not  told  the  exact 
truth  about  Lincoln,  he  would  have  been  a  myth  in  a  hundred 
years  after  1865.  We  knew  him — loved  him — had  ideas 
and  had  the  courage  of  our  convictions.  We  told  the  world 
what  Lincoln  was  and  were  terribly  abused  for  it." — (World's 
Work,  February,  1911,  p.  14044). 

One  of  the  chief  things  which  Lamon  set  out  to  do  was 
to  refute  Holland's  estimate  of  Lincoln's  faith,  particularly 
as  it  appeared  in  Holland's  account  of  the  Bateman  story. 
Lamon  held  that  any  impression  which  people  got  that  Lincoln 
possessed  substantial  Christian  faith,  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
Lincoln  was  a  wily  politician,  who  saw  the  power  and  appre 
ciated  the  prejudices  of  the  churches  and  was  determined  not 
to  suffer  from  their  hostility.  He  not  only  grew  more  cautious 
as  he  grew  older,  but  actually  dissembled.  His  religious  ref 
erences  were  made  as  vague  and  general  as  possible,  and  he 
permitted  himself  to  be  misunderstood  and  misrepresented 
by  ministers  and  others  because  of  "  his  morbid  ambition, 
coupled  with  a  mortal  fear  that  his  popularity  would  suffer 


THE  LAMON  BIOGRAPHY  131 

by  an  open  avowal  of  his  deistic  convictions  "  (Lamon,  Life 
of  Lincoln,  p.  498). 

His  estimate  of  Lincoln  is  that  "On  the  whole,  he  was  an 
honest,  although  a  shrewd,  and  by  no  means  unselfish  poli 
tician."  He  attributes  Lincoln's  melancholy  definitely  to  his 
utter  lack  of  faith. 

"  It  is  very  probable  that  much  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  unhappi- 
ness,  the  melancholy  that  *  dripped  from  him  as  he  walked/ 
was  due  to  his  want  of  religious  faith.  When  the  black  fit 
was  on  him,  he  suffered  as  much  mental  misery  as  Bunyan 
or  Cowper  in  the  deepest  anguish  of  their  conflicts  with  the 
Evil  One.  But  the  unfortunate  conviction  fastened  upon  him 
by  his  early  associations,  that  there  was  no  truth  in  the  Bible, 
made  all  consolation  impossible,  and  penitence  useless.  To  a 
man  of  his  temperament,  predisposed  as  it  was  to  depression 
of  spirit,  there  could  be  no  chance  of  happiness  if  doomed 
to  live  without  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world.  He  might 
force  himself  to  be  merry  with  his  chosen  comrades;  he  might 
'  banish  sadness '  in  mirthful  conversation,  or  find  relief  in 
a  jest;  gratified  ambition  might  elevate  his  feelings,  and  give 
him  ease  for  a  time :  but  solid  comfort  and  permanent  peace 
could  come  to  him  only  '  through  a  correspondence  fixed 
with  heaven/  The  fatal  misfortune  of  his  life,  looking  at 
it  only  as  it  affected  him  in  this  world,  was  the  influence  at 
New  Salem  and  at  Springfield  which  enlisted  him  on  the  side 
of  unbelief.  He  paid  the  bitter  penalty  in  a  life  of  misery." — 
LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  504. 

In  support  of  this  thesis,  Lamon,  aided  and  abetted  by 
Herndon,  sought  for  testimonials  from  those  who  had  known 
Lincoln,  endeavoring  to  prove  that  he  had  no  religious  faith. 
Herndon  himself  wrote  a  letter  which  we  shall  quote  later 
because  of  its  bearing  upon  a  particular  point  which  we  have 
yet  to  discuss,  and  gave  the  names  of  Judge  Logan,  John  T. 
Stuart,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  and  James  H.  Matheny  as  those 
who  would  confirm  his  declaration  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel. 
Herndon' s  own  definition  of  the  term  infidel  is  susceptible  of 
such  varying  definitions  in  his  different  letters  and  published 
articles  that  it  is  not  always  easy  to  tell  just  what  he  meant 


132     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

by  it,  but  in  some  of  these  he  was  specific  and  told,  from  his 
own  alleged  knowledge  or  his  memory  of  the  testimony  of 
others,  what  Lincoln  believed  and  denied.  Judge  Logan 
appears  not  to  have  contributed  to  the  discussion,  but  from 
several  of  the  others  and  from  some  other  men  whose  letters 
Herndon  already  had,  Lamon  made  up  a  considerable  volume 
of  testimony  concerning  the  unbelief  of  Lincoln.  Some  of 
these  we  quote,  reserving  others  for  later  consideration. 

Hon.  John  T.  Stuart  was  alleged  to  have  said : 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  when  he  first  came  here,  and  for 
years  afterwards.  He  was  an  avowed  and  open  infidel,  some 
times  bordered  on  atheism.  I  have  often  and  often  heard 
Lincoln  and  one  W.  D.  Herndon,  who  was  a  free-thinker, 
talk  over  this  subject.  Lincoln  went  further  against  Christian 
beliefs  and  doctrines  and  principles  than  any  man  I  ever  heard : 
he  shocked  me.  I  don't  remember  the  exact  line  of  his  argu 
ment:  suppose  it  was  against  the  inherent  defects,  so  called, 
of  the  Bible,  and  on  grounds  of  reason.  Lincoln  always 
denied  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ  of  God, — denied  that  Jesus 
was  the  Son  of  God,  as  understood  and  maintained  by  the 
Christian  Church.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  who  wrote  a  letter, 
tried  to  convert  Lincoln  from  infidelity  so  late  as  1858,  and 
couldn't  do  it." — LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  488. 

It  later  developed  that  these  quotations  which  appeared 
in  Lamon's  book  in  the  form  of  letters  to  Herndon  were  in 
some  instances,  if  not  in  all,  Herndon's  own  reports  of  con 
versations  with  these  friends  of  Lincoln,  and  not,  in  any 
case,  signed  letters.  Several  of  the  putative  authors  repudiated 
the  statements  attributed  to  them. 

Dr.  C.  H.  Ray  was  quoted  as  saying : 

"  I  do  not  know  how  I  can  aid  you.  You  [Herndon] 
knew  Mr.  Lincoln  far  better  than  I  did,  though  I  knew  him 
well ;  and  you  have  served  up  his  leading  characteristics  in  a 
way  that  I  should  despair  of  doing,  if  I  should  try.  I  have 
only  one  thing  to  ask :  that  you  do  not  give  Calvinistic  theology 


THE  LAMON  BIOGRAPHY  133 

a  chance  to  claim  him  as  one  of  its  saints  and  martyrs.  He 
went  to  the  Old-School  Church;  but,  in  spite  of  that  outward 
assent  to  the  horrible  dogmas  of  the  sect,  I  have  reason  from 
himself  to  know  that  his  '  vital  purity/  if  that  means  belief 
in  the  impossible,  was  of  a  negative  sort." — LAMON,,  Life  of 
Lincoln,  pp.  489-90. 

Hon.  David  Davis  was  quoted  as  saying: 

"  I  do  not  know  anything  about  Lincoln's  religion,  and  do 
not  think  anybody  knew.  The  idea  that  Lincoln  talked  to  a 
stranger  about  his  religion  or  religious  views,  or  made  such 
speeches,  remarks,  etc.,  about  it  as  are  published,  is  to  me 
absurd.  I  knew  the  man  so  well :  he  was  the  most  reticient, 
secretive  man  I  ever  saw,  or  expect  to  see.  He  had  no  faith, 
in  the  Christian  sense  of  the  term, — had  faith  in  laws,  prin 
ciples,  causes,  and  effects — philosophically:  you  [Herndon] 
know  more  about  his  religion  than  any  man.  You  ought  to 
know  it,  of  course." — LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln ,  p.  489. 

Lamon  also  printed  a  letter  from  James  H.  Matheny,  who 
had  been  Lincoln's  "  best  man  "  at  his  wedding,  and  a  long 
time  and  intimate  friend.  It  would  be  included  in  this  chapter, 
as  it  is  to  be  referred  to  in  the  next,  but  it  is  reserved  for  a 
more  important  use  in  the  chapter  on  "  Lincoln's  Burnt  Book." 

Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln  lashed  into  greater  fury  the 
tempest  that  already  raged  concerning  Lincoln's  religious 
faith.  Nor  was  this  the  only  criticism  upon  it.  It  was  the 
first  of  the  Lives  of  Lincoln  to  which  the  later  term  of  "  muck 
raking"  might  have  been  applied,  and  its  spirit  of  hostility 
is  best  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  its  real  author  was  not 
Lamon  but  Black,  who  not  only  entertained  all  the  local 
prejudice  which  one  element  in  Springfield  had  against  Lin 
coln,  but  represented  also  a  bitter  political  hostility,  Black's 
father  having  been  a  member  of  Buchanan's  Cabinet.  Indeed 
there  is  alleged  to  have  been  a  three-cornered  and  acrimonious 
dispute  among  the  publishers,  Lamon,  and  Black  concerning 
an  omitted  chapter  on  Buchanan's  administration  which  had 
something  to  do  with  one  aspect  of  the  book's  financial  failure. 


134    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Black  and  Lamon  and  the  publishers  all  lost  money  and  the 
book  was  a  financial  disaster. 

Notwithstanding  its  tone  of  astonishing  bitterness  against 
Lincoln,  its  shocking  bad  taste  and  its  perverted  viewpoint, 
Lamon's  biography  is  a  valuable  source  of  information.  Con 
cerning  it  John  Hay  wrote  to  Lamon,  "  Nothing  heretofore 
printed  can  compare  with  it  in  interest,  and  from  the  nature 
of  the  case  all  subsequent  writers  will  have  to  come  to  you 
for  a  large  class  of  facts." 

In  1895  Lamon's  daughter  Dorothy,  subsequently  Mrs. 
Teillard,  published  a  book  of  "  Recollections  "  of  Lincoln  by 
her  father,  with  no  objectionable  matter,  and  with  a  consid 
erable  number  of  valuable  incidents.  But  this  later  book, 
while  avoiding  the  occasions  of  criticism  which  the  first  book 
evoked,  added  little  to  the  character  study  which  the  first 
volume,  with  all  its  manifold  defects,  had  contained. 

Lamon  was  a  very  different  man  from  Lincoln — so  differ 
ent  that  men  who  knew  them  both  wondered  at  Lincoln's 
fondness  for  him.  And  he  knew  Lincoln  intimately.  But  he 
was  not  capable  of  interpreting  the  best  that  was  in  Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  REED  LECTURE 

ONE  of  the  first  results  of  the  Lamon  biography  was  a  lecture 
prepared  by  Rev.  James  A.  Reed,  pastor  of  the  First  Pres 
byterian  Church  of  Springfield.  This  lecture1  was  delivered 
several  times,  and  in  1873  was  published  in  Scribner's  Magar 
sine,  which  at  that  time  was  edited  by  J.  G.  Holland.  Holland 
had  been  horrified  by  the  Lamon  biography,  and  had  reviewed 
it  with  such  disfavor  that  Herndon  attributes  the  failure  of 
the  book  in  no  small  part  to  Holland's  pronounced  opposition. 
This  lecture,  published  in  so  widely  read  a  magazine,  produced 
a  profound  impression.  A  doubt  which  Lamon  had  raised  and 
which  Herndon  later  had  the  bad  taste  to  emphasize  concerning 
Lincoln's  paternity  turned  to  good  advantage;  and  Reed  pro 
duced  from  several  of  the  men  whom  Lamon  had  quoted, 
counter-statements  declaring  that  they  had  been  misquoted. 
Of  these  was  James  H.  Matheny,  whose  statement  to  Herndon 
we  are  to  consider  in  connection  with  the  story  of  Lincoln's 
burnt  book  and  who  wrote  to  Dr.  Reed : 

"  The  language  attributed  to  me  in  Lamon's  book  is  not 
from  my  pen.  I  did  not  write  it,  and  it  does  not  express  my 
sentiment  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  entire  life  and  character.  It  is  a 
mere  collection  of  sayings  gathered  from  private  conversa 
tions  that  were  only  true  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  earlier  life.  I 
would  not  have  allowed  such  an  article  to  be  printed  over  my 
signature  as  covering  my  opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and 
religious  sentiments.  While  I  do  believe  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have 
been  an  infidel  in  his  former  life,  when  his  mind  was  as  yet 
unformed,  and  his  associations  principally  with  rough  and 
skeptical  men,  yet  I  believe  he  was  a  very  different  man  in 

1  This  lecture  is  now  very  rare,  and  the  text  is  given  in  the  Appendix 
to  this  volume. 

135 


136     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

later  life;  and  that  after  associating  with  a  different  class  of 
men,  and  investigating  the  subject,  he  was  a  firm  believer  in 
the  Christian  religion." 

Major  John  T.  Stuart  also  repudiated  the  statement 
attributed  to  him,  and  not  only  so  but  gave  detailed  and 
positive  statements  which  directly  contradicted  the  more  im 
portant  part  of  what  Lamon  had  attributed  to  him. 

Dr.  Reed  went  further  and  set  forth  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  precision  the  grounds  for  the  statement  that  Lin 
coln's  views  had  undergone  marked  change  during  his  life  in 
Springfield,  particularly  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Reed's 
predecessor,  the  Rev.  James  Smith. 

Dr.  Reed's  lecture  became  the  subject  of  acrimonious 
attack.  His  article  was  flouted,  belittled,  and  railed  at.  But 
its  essential  affirmations  have  not  been  disproved.  We  shall 
devote  a  chapter  to  a  consideration  of  the  relations  of  Dr. 
Smith  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  shall  find  that  Dr.  Reed's  claims 
were  not  extravagant. 

Other  controversialists  took  up  the  pen  about  this  time 
in  confutation  of  Lamon.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and 
valuable  of  the  contributions  which  then  appeared  was  an 
article  by  B.  F.  Irwin,  of  Pleasant  Plains,  Illinois,  published 
in  the  Illinois  State  Journal,  for  May  16,  I&74.2  He  produced 
a  considerable  number  of  letters  from  men  who  had  known 
Mr.  Lincoln  prior  to  his  residence  in  Springfield  and  whose 
knowledge  of  his  religious  beliefs  at  that  time  was  intimate 
and  accurate.  Of  these  by  far  the  most  important  was  from 
Lincoln's  old  teacher,  Mentor  Graham,  which  we  shall  quote 
at  length  in  the  chapter  on  Lincoln's  "  Burnt  Book." 

Among  these  were  letters  from  men  who  professed  to 
have  heard  Lincoln  charged  with  infidelity  and  had  heard 
him  deny  it.  The  most  important  of  these  letters,  however, 
aside  from  that  of  Mentor  Graham,  have  value  for  us  in  the 
light  they  shed  upon  what  really  constituted  Lincoln's  alleged 
infidelity  at  this  early  period.  That  he  had  doubts  and  mis- 

2  This  important  communication  containing  signed  letters  from  a 
number  of  Lincoln's  friends  is  given  in  full  in  the  Appendix. 


THE  REED  LECTURE  137 

givings  upon  various  subjects  was  not  denied,  but  his  hostility 
to  the  orthodox  belief  expressed  itself  chiefly  in  a  vigorous 
denial  of  the  endlessness  of  future  punishment.  This  dogma 
Lincoln  denied  upon  two  grounds,  as  these  letters  affirm. 
First,  the  justice  and  mercy  of  God;  and  secondly,  the  fact 
that  according  to  the  Biblical  scheme  of  redemption,  whatever 
right  the  human  race  had  possessed  to  immortality  and  lost 
through  sin,  had  been  restored  in  Christ.  Lincoln  was,  accord 
ing  to  the  testimony  of  a  number  of  these  men  who  had  known 
him,  not  an  infidel,  nor  even  a  deist,  but  essentially  a  Uni- 
versalist. 

Irwin  had  interviewed  Colonel  James  H.  Matheny  and 
quoted  Matheny  as  denying  that  he  had  ever  heard  Lincoln 
admit  that  he  was  an  infidel  and  did  not  himself  believe  it. 
Irwin  himself  had  known  Lincoln  personally  for  many  years 
and  had  known  large  numbers  of  men  who  were  intimately 
acquainted  with  him  and  he  said : 

"  I  have  never  yet  heard  one  single  man  express  the  belief 
that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel.  Mr.  Herndon,  it  is  true,  did 
have  opportunities  over  others  in  knowing  Mr.  Lincoln's 
religious  opinions,  but  other  men  had  some  opportunities,  as 
well  as  Mr.  Herndon,  and  to  them  I  shall  have  to  appeal,  for 
I  do  not  claim  to  personally  know  anything  about  Mr.  Lincoln's 
religious  faith.  Though  personally  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lin 
coln  for  twenty-eight  years  and  often  in  his  office,  I  never 
heard  him  say  a  word  on  the  subject  of  his  religious  belief." 

It  will  be  noted  that  while  the  statements  concerning 
Mr.  Lincoln's  alleged  infidelity  have  been  published  over  the 
name  of  Lamon,  Herndon  was  held  responsible  for  them  in 
these  controversies.  The  impetuous  Herndon  possessed  none 
of  the  reticence  of  Bateman;  and  while  denying  that  he  wrote 
Lamon's  book,  rushed  in  as  Lamon' s  champion  and  covered 
himself  with  wounds  if  not  with  glory. 

Irwin's  article  proceeds  to  quote  these  old  neighbors  and 
friends  of  Lincoln,  whose  testimony,  added  to  those  adduced 
by  Dr.  Reed,  was  of  very  great  weight.  I  have  copied  these3 

3  Although  a  number  of  these  letters  are  quoted  in  the  text,  the 
article  as  a  whole  is  so  important  that  it  is  given  in  full  in  the  Appendix. 


138     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

from  the  files  of  the  Illinois  State  Journal  in  the  Library  of 
the  Illinois  State  Historical  Society  in  Springfield  and  here 
produce  three  of  them,  reserving  others  for  later  comment. 

One  of  the  letters  quoted  in  full  by  Irwin  was  from 
Thomas  Mostiller,  of  Pleasant  Plains,  Menard  County,  Illinois. 
He  professed  to  have  heard  Lincoln  when  he  was  a  candidate 
for  Congress  in  1847  or  1848,  when  he  was  charged  with 
being  an  infidel  and  explicitly  denied  it.  Said  he : 

"I  was  present  and  heard  Josiah  Grady  ask  Lincoln  a 
question  or  two  regarding  a  charge  made  against  Lincoln 
of  being  an  infidel,  and  Lincoln  unqualifiedly  denied  the  charge 
of  infidelity,  and  said,  in  addition,  his  parents  were  Baptists, 
and  brought  him  up  in  the  belief  of  the  Christian  religion; 
and  he  believed  it  as  much  as  anyone,  but  was  sorry  to  say  he 
had  or  made  no  pretensions  to  religion  himself.  I  can't  give 
his  exact  words,  but  would  make  oath  anywhere  that  he  posi 
tively  denied  the  charge  made  against  him  of  infidelity.  That 
was  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  the  charge  of  infidelity  against 
Lincoln.  Grady  did  not  say  that  he  would  not  vote  for 
Lincoln  if  he  was  an  infidel,  but  my  understanding  from 
Grady  was  that  he  would  not  vote  for  Lincoln  if  he  was  an 
infidel ;  and  Grady  did,  as  I  suppose,  vote  for  him.  I  under 
stood  him  that  he  should." 

Another  statement  was  by  Jonathan  Harnett.  It  was  not 
made  in  a  letter,  like  the  others,  but  was  verbally  stated  to 
Mr.  Irwin,  who  wrote  it  from  Harnett's  dictation,  and  was 
then  read  to  him  and  endorsed  by  him.  Mr.  Harnett  related 
an  incident  which  he  declared  himself  to  have  witnessed  in 
Lincoln's  office  in  1858,  when  an  argument  was  held  on  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  a  number  of  men  participating. 
He  affirmed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  ended  the  discussion  by  a  cogent 
argument  based  on  the  restitution  of  all  things  in  Christ,  and 
the  ultimate  salvation  of  all  men. 

This  line  of  argument,  attested  by  a  number  who  heard 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  these  discussions,  will  be  readily  understood 
by  those  who  have  heard,  as  he  had  heard  from  his  infancy, 


THE  REED  LECTURE  139 

the  typical  argument  of  the  backwoods  Baptist  preacher,  and 
who  appreciates  Mr.  Lincoln's  theory  of  the  irrevocability  of 
the  Divine  will,  and  the  relation  of  the  atonement  to  the  resti 
tution  of  all  things.  The  essential  difference  between  Lin 
coln's  point  of  view  and  that  of  these  preachers  was  that  the 
preachers  saw  in  the  work  of  Christ  the  basis  of  personal 
forgiveness  of  sin;  and  Lincoln  saw  in  it  rather  a  manifesta 
tion  of  the  irrevocable  law  of  God  for  the  ultimate  salvation 
of  the  race. 

Another  of  the  letters  included  in  the  Irwin  article  was 
one  from  Isaac  Cogdal,  who  related  a  conversation  in  Lincoln's 
office  in  Herndon's  presence,  in  which  Lincoln  expressed  him 
self  somewhat  as  follows: 

"He  did  not  nor  could  not  believe  in  the  endless  punish 
ment  of  any  one  of  the  human  race.  He  understood  punish 
ment  for  sin  to  be  a  Bible  doctrine;  that  punishment  was 
parental  in  its  object,  aim  and  design,  and  intended  for  the 
good  of  the  offender;  hence  it  must  cease  when  justice  was 
satisfied.  He  added  that  all  that  was  lost  by  the  transgression 
of  Adam  was  made  good  by  the  atonement;  all  that  was  lost 
by  the  fall  was  made  good  by  the  sacrifice ;  and  he  added  this 
remark,  that  punishment  being  a  '  provision  of  the  gospel 
system,  he  was  not  sure  but  the  world  would  be  better  off  if  a 
little  more  punishment  was  preached  by  our  ministers,  and  not 
so  much  of  pardon  of  sin.' ' 

I  need  only  add,  that  to  me  these  letters  carry  the  convic 
tion  of  reality.  Lincoln  had  been  rooted  and  grounded  in 
the  kind  of  dogma  that  began  with  Adam  and  related  to  his 
fall  in  vital  sort  the  atonement  of  Christ.  That  Lincoln  had 
some  doubts  concerning  the  person  of  Christ  is  not  in  point. 
He  believed  in  God,  and  he  knew  the  fact  of  sin,  and  he  was 
dyed  in  the  wool  in  arguments  concerning  the  fall  of  the 
race  in  Adam  and  its  redemption  in  Christ.  But  he  did  not 
dwell  as  did  the  preachers  on  individual  forgiveness,  which 
he  sometimes  doubted,  but  sought  to  evolve  a  legal  and  moral 
scheme  with  a  final  restoration.  I  regard  these  testimonies 
as  essentially  true. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  HERNDON  LECTURES,  LETTERS,  AND 
BIOGRAPHY 

THE  name  of  William  H.  Herndon  finds  frequent  mention  in 
these  pages,  as  it  must  in  any  study  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
With  all  his  faults  as  a  biographer,  his  astigmatism,  his  anti- 
religious  prejudice,  his  intolerance,  his  bad  taste,  he  is  an 
invaluable  source  of  information  concerning  his  partner  and 
friend,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  publication  of  the  Lamon  biography  and  the  Reed 
lecture  brought  him  into  a  conflict  from  which  no  power  on 
earth  could  probably  have  kept  him  out,  and  in  it  he  did  and 
said  many  things  which  for  his  own  sake  and  Lincoln's  he 
might  better  not  have  said. 

But  Herndon  was  no  liar.  Biased  as  he  was,  and  himself 
a  free-thinker  or  perhaps  worse,  he  told  the  truth  in  such 
fashion  as  to  throw  it  out  of  perspective,  and'  sometimes  told 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  in  a  passion  which  compels 
us  to  discount  some  of  his  testimony.  But  he  did  not  lie  nor 
intentionally  misrepresent. 

For  twenty  years  Lincoln  and  Herndon  were  law  partners, 
and  their  partnership  was  never  formally  dissolved.  Lincoln 
liked  Herndon,  but  there  was  no  loss  of  love  between  Herndon 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln.  She,  if  tradition  about  Springfield  is  to 
be  believed,  disliked  him  personally  for  his  habits,  and  possibly 
also  for  his  politics,  for  he  was  an  Abolitionist  before  Lincoln, 
and  a  very  ardent  one  at  that.  Had  she  known  what  Herndon 
was  to  say  about  her  in  later  years  she  might  have  been  more 
gracious  to  her  husband's  junior  partner,  who  had  learned 
some  habits  at  the  bar  of  his  father's  tavern  which  he  might 
better  not  have  learned. 

Herndon  in  his  later  life  looked  not  a  little  like  Lincoln, 

140 


THE  HERNDON  BIOGRAPHY         141 

and  showed  no  disposition  by  any  change  of  beard  or  other 
device  to  lessen  the  resemblance;  but  in  other  particulars  the 
two  men  were  most  unlike.  Herndon  was  five  feet  nine, 
Lincoln  more  than  six  feet  three.  Herndon  was  impetuous, 
Lincoln  extremely  deliberate  and  cautious  to  a  fault.  Herndon 
was  a  good  judge  of  human  nature  and  excelled  in  cross- 
examination,  while  he  failed  in  the  careful  preparation  of  his 
cases;  Lincoln  was  a  very  poor  judge  of  human  nature,  but 
reduced  his  cases  to  simple  principles,  and  carefully  worked 
up  his  evidence  with  deliberate  care.  Herndon  was  a  great 
reader ;  Lincoln  seldom  read  a  book  through.  Herndon  spent 
his  money  for  books  and  had  a  valuable  library ;  Lincoln  seldom 
wasted  a  dollar  on  a  book.  Herndon  was  outspoken ;  Lincoln 
was  secretive.  Herndon  wanted  all  the  world  to  know  what 
he  thought  about  everything;  Lincoln  kept  his  ear  to  the 
ground  and  chose  his  own  time  for  the  utterance  of  his 
convictions. 

We  shall  never  have  another  as  good  description  of 
Abraham  Lincoln's  appearance  and  manner  as  that  which 
comes  from  the  pen  of  Herndon,  nor  shall  we  ever  obtain 
better  pen  pictures  of  many  of  the  incidents  in  his  career. 
But  Herndon  was  too  good  a  witness  to  be  a  good  judge, 
and  he  lived  too  near  the  stump  to  behold  the  tree. 

Herndon  had  already  attempted  to  catechize  Dr.  Smith,1 
Mr.  Lincoln's  pastor,  concerning  his  relations  with  Lincoln, 
and  Smith  had  replied  that  he  was  willing  to  tell  what  he 
knew  about  Lincoln's  faith,  but  did  not  choose  to  make  Mr. 
Herndon  his  vehicle  of  communication  to  the  public.  This 
did  not  tend  to  increase  Herndon's  love  for  the  clergy:  and 
when  Dr.  Holland  printed  Dr.  Reed's  lecture,  with  its  letters 
in  which  several  of  the  men  whom  Lamon,  on  Herndon's 
authority,  had  quoted  in  support  of  Lamon's  declaration, 
Herndon  quickly  replied  and  Holland  refused  to  print  his 
article. 

Herndon  spilled  much  ink  through  a  New  York  newspaper 

1  Herndon's  letter  to  Dr.  Smith  was  impudent,  demanding  that  he 
answer  as  a  man,  if  he  could,  and  if  not  as  a  man,  then  as  a  Christian — 
a  challenge  which  the  old  Scotchman  answered  in  kind. 


142    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

whose  editor  later  was  sent  to  prison  for  the  circulation  of 
obscene  literature,  and  wrote  a  number  of  letters,  in  each  of 
which  he  tended  to  become  a  little  more  pronounced. 

He  scorned  the  idea  that  Lincoln  had  taken  strangers  into 
his  confidence  concerning  his  faith.  He  said  in  a  letter  to 
J.  E.  Remsburg,  under  date  of  September  10,  1887,  "  He  was 
the  most  secretive,  reticent,  shut-mouthed  man  that  ever 
existed." 

The  Reed  lecture  infuriated  him.  He  denounced  Dr.  Reed 
publicly  as  a  liar,  and  said  many  things  which  a  more  prudent 
man  would  not  have  said.  On  November  9,  1882,  he  issued 
a  broadside,  entitled  "A  Card  and  a  Correction,"  beginning: 

"  I  wish  to  say  a  few  short  words  to  the  public  and  private 
ear.  About  the  year  1870  I  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  F.  E.  Abbott, 
then  of  Ohio,  touching  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion.2  In  that  letter 
I  stated  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  sometimes  bordering 
on  atheism,  and  I  now  repeat  the  same.  In  the  year  1873, 
the  Right  Rev.  James  A.  Reed,  pastor  and  liar  of  this  city, 
gave  a  lecture  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion,  in  which  he  tried 
to  answer  me, — "  and  more  to  the  same  purport. 

While  Herndon  and  Lamon  were  men  of  quite  different 
mind  and  ability,  the  two  men  used  essentially  the  same  body 
of  material  for  the  making  of  their  books  about  Lincoln, 
Herndon  having  sold  copies  of  all  his  Lincoln  manuscripts 
to  Lamon. 

Herndon  delivered  at  least  three  lectures  on  Lincoln.  The 
first,  and  most  popular  and  valuable,  was  on  the  "  Life  and 
Character  of  Lincoln."  It  was  first  delivered  to  a  Springfield 
audience  in  1866,  was  repeated  many  times,  and  it  forms  the 
substance  of  the  twentieth  chapter  of  his  book,  as  it  appeared 
in  the  first  edition,  and  the  eleventh  chapter  in  the  second. 
It  contains  the  incomparable  description  of  Lincoln's  personal 
appearance  which  must  stand  to  all  time  as  the  best  and  final 
pen-picture  of  the  man. 

2  The  Abbott  letter  is  printed  in  Herndon's  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  492- 
497:  portions  of  it  have  been  quoted  in  this  book. 

The  Remsburg  letter  and  the  broadside  above  referred  to  are  printed 
in  full  in  the  Appendix  to  this  book. 


THE  HERNDON  BIOGRAPHY         143 

The  second  was  entitled  "  Abraham  Lincoln ;  Miss  Ann 
Rutledge;  New  Salem;  the  Poem."  It  was  delivered  in  the 
old  Sangamon  County  court  house  in  Springfield  in  November, 
1866,  and  was  based  on  notes  which  Herndon  had  recently 
made  on  a  visit  to  New  Salem,  Sunday  and  Monday,  October 
14-15,  1866.  It  contains  the  material  out  of  which  all  sub 
sequent  romantic  works  about  Lincoln  and  Ann  Rutledge 
have  been  woven.  It  was  heard  by  a  small  audience,  greeted 
with  manifest  disapproval,  and  came  near  to  being  hopelessly 
lost;  but  is  preserved  in  a  limited  edition  published  by  H.  E. 
Barker,  Springfield.  This  edition  is  quoted  in  part  in  the 
foregoing  pages,  with  special  reference  to  Herndon's  personal 
touch  with  New  Salem. 

The  third  was  on  "  The  Religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln," 
and  was  called  out  by  the  Holland  biography  and  the  Bateman 
interview.  Of  this  and  the  first,  Mr.  Barker  says  in  his 
preface  to  the  Ann  Rutledge  lecture,  that  they  "  were  allowed 
to  perish  for  lack  of  permanence  in  printed  form.  Their 
subject-matter,  however,  was  embodied  in  the  extended  Life 
of  Lincoln  published  in  1872  by  Ward  H.  Lamon,  and  in  the 
still  later  Life  of  Lincoln  written  and  published  by  Mr.  Hern 
don  in  1889." 

This  material  is  quoted  practically  in  extenso  in  the  pages 
of  this  volume,  no  important  statement  having  been  omitted. 

Herndon's  regret  increased  that  he  had  sold  to  Lamon  the 
copies  of  his  papers.  He  was  in  a  position  where  he  was 
getting  most  of  the  blame  for  what  Lamon  had  written,  and 
he  was  not  wholly  in  sympathy  with  Lamon's  and  especially 
with  Black's  point  of  view.  Lamon's  proposed  new  edition, 
with  the  new  volume  that  was  to  have  covered  the  years  of 
Lincoln's  Presidency,  did  not  materialize.  There  was  probably 
no  publisher  who  dared  undertake  it.  At  length  Herndon  got 
to  work  on  his  own  biography  of  Lincoln,  and  was  fortunate 
in  associating  with  himself  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik,  who  helped 
him  to  complete  it.  The  work  was  published  in  1889  by  Bel- 
ford,  Clarke,  &  Company,  of  Chicago,  and  made  its  appear 
ance  in  three  volumes.  Soon  after  its  publication  the  firm 
failed.  The  books  were  hawked  about  for  a  song,  the  greater 


144     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

part  of  the  edition  was  unsold,  and  the  balance  of  the  edition 
is  alleged  to  have  been  bought  up  by  Lincoln's  friends  and 
destroyed.  The  author  of  this  book  paid  $35.00  for  his  set, 
and  could  sell  it  at  a  profit. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  Herndon  had  not  learned  his  lesson 
from  the  fate  of  Lamon's  book.  If  he  had  omitted  some  of 
the  objectionable  matter,  he  would  have  made  for  himself 
a  great  name.  Even  as  it  was,  he  did  a  great  piece  of  work : 
but  he  gained  neither  money  nor  commendation. 

In  1892,  Appletons  brought  out  a  new  edition  in  two 
volumes,  with  some  matter  omitted,  and  some  new  matter 
by  Horace  White,  and  that  edition  met  with  favor.  But 
Herndon  did  not  live  to  see  it.  He  died,  poor  and 
battle-scarred,  denounced  as  the  maligner  of  the  man  he 
loved. 

In  his  younger  days,  Herndon  drank,  and  it  is  alleged 
that  in  his  later  life  he  used  morphine.  It  is  said  that  he 
wanted  an  appointment  to  a  Government  Land  Office,  but 
that  Lincoln,  knowing  his  weakness,  did  not  appoint  him,  and 
that  this  had  some  share  in  his  feeling,  which  he  still  thought 
to  be  one  of  reverence  for  Lincoln,  but  which  was  uncon 
sciously  tinged  with  resentment.  To  this  it  is  answered  that 
Lincoln  did  offer  Herndon  an  appointment  which  Herndon 
declined:  but  it  was  not  a  very  attractive  appointment,  and 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  Herndon  was  disappointed, 
and  that  he  knew  Lincoln's  reason. 

The  name  which  Herndon  applied  to  Lincoln  he  accepted 
for  himself,  that  of  infidel.  Yet  it  is  fair  to  ask  whether  this 
was  a  just  term  as  applied  to  Herndon  himself.  In  his  lecture 
on  Ann  Rutledge,  he  had  occasion  to  defend  himself  in  advance 
for  views  which  he  knew  would  be  heard  with  suspicion,  and 
which,  indeed,  like  almost  everything  he  said  and  did,  had 
the  unfortunate  quality  of  increasing  his  unpopularity,  he 
said: 

"  You  know  my  Religion,  my  Philosophy :  That  the 
highest  thought  and  acts  of  the  human  soul  and  its  religious 
sphere  are  to  think,  love,  obey,  and  worship  God,  by  thinking 
freely,  by  loving,  teaching,  doing  good  to,  and  elevating  man- 


THE  HERNDON  BIOGRAPHY         145 

kind.  My  first  duty  is  to  God,  then  to  mankind,  and  then  to 
the  individual  man  or  woman." — Lecture  on  Ann  Rutledge, 
pp.  9-10. 

One  cannot  help  regretting  that  the  man  who  had  thus 
defined  his  own  religion  should  ever  have  been  led  to  think 
himself  or  any  other  man  whom  he  supposed  to  be  like-minded 
an  infidel. 


CHAPTER  XII 
LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK 

IN  the  chapter  on  the  "  Conditions  of  Lincoln's  Young  Man 
hood  at  New  Salem  "  mention  was  made  of  the  "  book  " 
which  Lincoln  is  said  to  have  written,  opposed  to  the  Christian 
religion,  a  book  which  his  employer,  Samuel  Hill,  is  said  to 
have  snatched  from  his  hand  and  thrown  into  the  fire  lest 
Lincoln's  infidelity  should  ruin  his  political  career.  To  have 
treated  this  subject  at  length  would  have  thrown  that  chapter 
out  of  focus,  and  it  is  time  that  we  should  learn  the  truth 
about  it. 

Colonel  Lamon  tells  us  about  this  book  thus : 

"  He  had  made  himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  writ 
ings  of  Paine  and  Volney, — the  Ruins  by  one  and  the  Age  of 
Reason  by  the  other.  His  mind  was  full  of  the  subject,  and 
he  felt  an  itching  to  write.  He  did  write,  and  the  result  was 
a  '  little  book.'  It  was  probably  merely  an  extended  essay,1 
but  it  was  ambitiously  spoken  of  as  a  '  book '  by  himself  and 
by  the  persons  who  were  made  acquainted  with  its  contents. 
In  this  book  he  intended  to  demonstrate, — 

"  First,  that  the  Bible  was  not  God's  revelation ;  and 
"  Secondly,  that  Jesus  was  not  the  Son  of  God." 

— LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  157-58. 

Lamon  wrote  this  in  1872  of  a  book  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  Lincoln  and  burned  by  Hill  in  1834. 

We  have  already  quoted  from  Herndon's  account,  but  it 
is  brief  and  for  convenience  will  bear  reading  here  in  full : 

"  In  1834,  while  still  living  in  New  Salem  and  before  he 
became  a  lawyer,  he  was  surrounded  by  a  class  of  people 
exceedingly  liberal  in  matters  of  religion.  Volney 's  Ruins 

1  Statements  of  this  nature  show,  what  we  know  without  them,  that 
Herndon  had  never  seen  the  "book"  nor  heard  it  described  by  anyone 
who  actually  saw  it. 

146 


LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK  147 

and  Paine's  Age  of  Reason  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and 
furnished  food  for  the  evening's  discussion  in  the  tavern  and 
village  store.  Lincoln  read  both  these  books  and  thus  assim 
ilated  them  into  his  own  being.  He  prepared  an  extended 
essay — called  by  many  a  book — in  which  he  made  an  argument 
against  Christianity,  striving  to  prove  that  the  Bible  was  not 
inspired,  and  therefore  not  God's  revelation,  and  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  not  the  Son  of  God.  The  manuscript  containing 
these  audacious  and  comprehensive  propositions  he  intended 
to  have  published  or  given  a  wide  circulation  in  some  other 
way.  He  carried  it  to  the  store,  where  it  was  read  and  freely 
discussed.  His  friend  and  employer,  Samuel  Hill,  was  among 
the  listeners,  and  seriously  questioning  the  propriety  of  a 
promising  young  man  like  Lincoln  fathering  such  unpopular 
notions,  he  snatched  the  manuscript  from  his  hands  and  thrust 
it  into  the  stove.  The  book  went  up  in  flames,  and  Lincoln's 
political  future  was  secure."— HERNDON,  III,  439,  440. 

Mr.  Herndon  had  already  given  this  information  to  Lamon 
in  another  form,  and  Lamon  used  it  in  his  list  of  certificates 
from  Lincoln's  old  friends  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel. 

As  printed  in  Lamon's  book,  Herndon's  account  of  the 
burnt  manuscript  was  communicated  in  the  following  letter: 

"  As  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  views,  he  was,  in  short, 
an  infidel,  ...  a  theist.  He  did  not  believe  that  Jesus  was 
God,  nor  the  Son  of  God, — was  a  fatalist,  denied  the  freedom 
of  the  will.  Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  a  thousand  times,  that  he 
did  not  believe  the  Bible  was  the  revelation  of  God,  as  the 
Christian  world  contends.  The  points  that  Mr.  Lincoln  tried 
to  demonstrate  [in  his  book]  were :  First,  That  the  Bible  was 
not  God's  revelation;  and,  Second,  That  Jesus  was  not  the 
Son  of  God.  I  assert  this  on  my  own  knowledge,  and  on  my 
veracity.  Judge  Logan,  John  T.  Stuart,  James  H.  Matheny, 
and  others,  will  tell  you  the  truth.  I  say  they  will  confirm 
what  I  say,  with  this  exception, — they  will  make  it  blacker 
than  I  remember  it.  Joshua  F.  Speed  of  Louisville,  I  think, 
will  tell  you  the  same  thing." — LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  489. 

It  is  important  to  notice  that  we  do  not  have  two  witnesses 
concerning  this  book,  but  only  one.  Lamon  gives  no  evidence 
of  having  possessed  any  independent  knowledge  of  the  book. 


148     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

His  information  was  derived  from  Herndon.  In  the  chapter 
on  "  Lincoln's  Young  Manhood  "  we  considered  how  slight 
was  Herndon's  personal  connection  with  New  Salem.  The 
town  had  vanished  long  before  he  ever  visited  the  spot,  and 
apparently  the  only  time  he  ever  spent  there  for  the  purpose 
of  study  was  a  Sunday  afternoon  and  Monday  morning, 
October  14  and  15,  1866.  On  the  occasion  of  that  visit  he 
gathered  the  material  for  his  lecture  on  Ann  Rutledge.  So 
far  as  we  have  evidence,  -he  learned  nothing  at  this  time  about 
Lincoln's  burnt  book.  In  his  letter,  written  to  be  included  in 
Lamon's  biography,  in  which  reference  to  this  book  is  made, 
he  says :  "  I  assert  this  on  my  own  knowledge  and  on  my 
own  veracity."  That  sentence  appears  at  first  reading  to  refer 
to  Herndon's  personal  knowledge  of  the  book,  but  a  second 
reading  with  the  context  shows  that  Herndon  does  not  mean 
to  claim  that  he  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  book,  but 
personal  knowledge  of  Lincoln's  belief  or  the  lack  of  it. 

Where  did  Herndon  learn  about  this  book  ? 

He  learned  it  from  James  H.  Matheny,  who  had  never  seen 
the  "book"  but  had  received  the  information  in  confidence 
from  Lincoln.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Matheny  repudi 
ated  the  supposed  letter  to  Herndon  which  Lamon  printed 
as  from  him  and  said  that  he  never  wrote  it,  but  that  Herndon 
compiled  it  from  scraps  of  several  conversations,  and  that  it 
did  not  represent  Matheny's  opinion  of  Lincoln's  ultimate 
religion.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  either  Herndon 
or  Lamon  intended  to  misrepresent  Matheny.  Lamon  had 
no  original  documents  to  work  from  and  the  copy  which  he 
received  of  Herndon's  notes  of  Matheny's  conversation  he 
took  to  be  the  copy  of  a  letter  from  Matheny  and  printed  it 
as  such.  It  appears  to  be  quite  clear  that  this  was  the  only 
source  of  Herndon's  knowledge  of  Lincoln's  burnt  book.  The 
following  is  the  report  of  these  scraps  of  conversation  with 
Matheny  as  Herndon  wrote  them  down  and  as  Lamon  printed 
them: 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  as  early  as  1834-5;  know  he  was  an 
infidel.  He  and  W.  D.  Herndon  used  to  talk  infidelity  in  the 


LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK  149 

clerk's  office  in  this  city,  about  the  years  1837-40.  Lincoln 
attacked  the  Bible  and  the  New  Testament  on  two  grounds: 
first,  from  the  inherent  or  apparent  contradictions  under  its 
lids;  second,  from  the  grounds  of  reason.  Sometimes  he 
ridiculed  the  Bible  and  New  Testament,  sometimes  seemed  to 
scoff  it,  though  I  shall  not  use  that  word  in  its  full  and 
literal  sense.  I  never  heard  that  Lincoln  changed  his  views, 
though  his  personal  and  political  friend  from  1834  to  1860. 
Sometimes  Lincoln  bordered  on  atheism.  He  went  far  that 
way,  and  often  shocked  me.  I  was  then  a  young  man  and 
believed  what  my  good  mother  told  me.  Stuart  &  Lincoln's 
office  was  in  what  was  called  Hoffman's  Row,  on  North 
Fifth  Street,  near  the  public  square.  It  was  in  the  same 
building  as  the  clerk's  office,  and  on  the  same  floor.  Lincoln 
would  come  into  the  clerk's  office,  where  I  and  some  young 
men — Evan  Butler,  Newton  Francis,  and  others — were  writ 
ing  or  staying,  and  would  bring  the  Bible  with  him;  would 
read  a  chapter ;  argue  against  it.  Lincoln  then  had  a  smatter 
ing  of  geology,  if  I  recollect  it.  Lincoln  often,  if  not  wholly, 
was  an  atheist;  at  least,  bordered  on  it.  Lincoln  was  enthu 
siastic  in  his  infidelity.  As  he  grew  older,  he  grew  more 
discreet,  didn't  talk  much  before  strangers  about  his  religion ; 
but  to  friends,  close  and  bosom  ones,  he  was  always  open  and 
avowed,  fair  and  honest;  but  to  strangers,  he  held  them  off 
from  policy.  Lincoln  used  to  quote  Burns.  Burns  helped 
Lincoln  to  be  an  infidel,  as  I  think ;  at  least,  he  found  in  Burns 
a  like  thinker  and  feeler.  Lincoln  quoted  '  Tarn  o'  Shanter.' 
'  What !  send  one  to  heaven,  and  ten  to  hell ! '  etc. 

"  From  what  I  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  views  of 
Christianity,  and  from  what  I  know  as  honest  and  well- 
founded  rumor;  from  what  I  have  heard  his  best  friends 
say  and  regret  for  years;  from  what  he  never  denied  when 
accused,  and  from  what  Lincoln  hinted  and  intimated,  to  say 
no  more — he  did  write  a  little  book  on  infidelity  at  or  near 
New  Salem,  in  Menard  County,  about  the  year  1834  or  1835. 
I  have  stated  these  things  to  you  often.  Judge  Logan,  John 
T.  Stuart,  yourself,  know  what  I  know,  and  some  of  you 
more. 

"  Mr.  Herndon,  you  insist  on  knowing  something  which 
you  know  I  possess,  and  got  as  a  secret,  and  that  is,  about 
Lincoln's  little  book  on  infidelity.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  tell  me 


150     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  he  did  write  a  little  book  on  infidelity.  This  statement 
I  have  avoided  heretofore;  but,  as  you  strongly  insist  upon 
it, — probably  to  defend  yourself  against  charges  of  misrepre 
sentation, — I  give  it  to  you  as  I  got  it  from  Lincoln's  mouth." 
— LAMON,  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  487-88. 

We  have  here  our  one  witness  that  Mr.  Lincoln  while  at 
New  Salem,2  freshly  risen  from  the  reading  of  Volney  and 
Paine,  and  having  what  Lamon  called  the  "  itch  for  writing  " 
wrote  some  kind  of  essay  adverse  to  the  doctrines  of  Chris 
tianity  as  Lincoln  then  understood  them.  Matheny  never 
saw  the  book  and  never  talked  with  anyone  so  far  as  we  know 
who  had  seen  it,  excepting  Lincoln  himself,  who  told  him  in 
confidence  that  he  had  written  such  an  essay.  The  fact  that 
Matheny  says  that  he  "  got  it  as  a  secret "  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  Lincoln  had  no  pride  in  it,  and  his  reference  to 
Herndon's  insistence  indicates  that  Herndon  had  no  other 
source  of  information. 

Lincoln  did,  then,  write  something  of  this  character  and 
it  may  have  been  burned;  though  it  is  extremely  doubtful 
whether  it  met  so  spectacular  a  fate  or  was  anything  like  so 
formidable  a  document  as  tradition  has  represented  it. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Colonel  Matheny  says  nothing  about 
the  burning  of  the  book.  Herndon  got  that  item  from  some 
other  source,  and  apparently  misunderstood  it.  This  informa 
tion,  apparently,  Herndon  picked  up  on  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  to  New  Salem.  Samuel  Hill  may,  indeed,  have  reminded 
Lincoln  that  if  he  intended  to  run  for  the  Legislature  against 
Peter  Cartwright,  it  would  be  better  for  him  not  to  be  known 
as  an  infidel;  and  indeed  if  Lincoln  was  known  as  an  infidel, 
Peter  Cartwright  was  not  the  man  to  have  failed  to  remind 
him  of  it.  But  at  the  time  when  Samuel  Hill  snatched  some 
thing  out  of  Lincoln's  hand  and  threw  it  into  the  fire  he  was  not 
concerned  so  much  about  Lincoln's  political  future  as  he  was 
about  something  else.  The  document  which  Samuel  Hill 
burned  contained  very  little  about  theology. 

2  We  may  note  in  passing  that  it  is  not  in  "Tarn  o'  Shanter "  but 
in  "  Holy  Willie's  Prayer  "  that  Burns  uses  the  line  quoted  by  Matheny. 


LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK  151 

When  on  an  evening  in  November,  1866,  Mr.  Herndon, 
but  lately  returned  from  his  visit  to  the  site  of  New  Salem, 
delivered  in  the  old  court  house  in  Springfield  before  a  small 
and  critical  audience  his  lecture  on  Ann  Rutledge,  he  informed 
his  hearers  that  in  1834  that  sweet  young  girl  of  nineteen 
was  simultaneously  loved  by  three  men,  one  of  whom  was 
Abraham  Lincoln.  He  omitted  the  names  of  the  other  two, 
and  filled  in  their  place  in  the  manuscript  with  blanks.  The 
world  has  long  since  learned  the  other  two  names,  of  John 
McNamur  and  Samuel  Hill.  Herndon's  reason  for  concealing- 
them  at  the  time  was  probably  the  fact  that  their  descendants 
were  living  near,  but  those  descendants  are  well  aware  of  it 
now,  and  have  been  for  years. 

Hill  and  McNamur  were  partners,  and  Ann  loved  McNa 
mur  and  rejected  Hill.  McNamur  went  East,  and  was 
gone  so  long  that  it  was  believed  he  was  either  dead  or  had 
proved  untrue,  and  Hill's  hope  lit  up  again  only  to  meet  a 
second  disappointment.  Ann  Rutledge  still  loved  McNamur, 
but,  believing  him  forever  lost  to  her,  she  had  made  her 
second  choice,  and  that  choice  was  not  Hill.  Hill  awoke  to  the 
sad  discovery  that  having  once  been  refused  for  his  partner's 
sake  he  was  refused  again  for  the  sake  of  his  clerk.  This 
shy,  gawky,  lank,  and  ill-mannered  young  fellow  who  was 
selling  goods  in  Hill's  store  and  studying  law  and  cherishing 
all  manner  of  ambitions  had  aspired  to  the  hand  of  Ann 
Rutledge  and  had  been  accepted. 

The  truth  about  it  came  out  in  the  discovery  of  a  letter 
which  Hill  had  written  to  McNamur.  Hill  was  making  one 
last  effort  to  learn  whether  McNamur  was  living  or  dead, 
and  if  living  whether  he  still  loved  Ann ;  and  was  reproaching 
him  for  his  delay  and  neglect.  This  letter  did  not  find  its 
way  to  the  post  office ;  in  some  way  it  was  lost  and  was  picked 
up  by  the  children  who  brought  it  to  Lincoln.  This  was  the 
document  which  Lincoln  held  in  his  hand  when  he  and  Hill 
came  to  their  final  reckoning  concerning  the  heart  of  Ann 
Rutledge;  and  the  argument  between  them,  while  friendly, 
developed  some  heat,  and  that  was  what  Hill  snatched  from 
Lincoln's  hand  and  threw  into  the  fire. 


152     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

As  for  the  book  or  essay  or  whatever  it  may  have  been  in 
which  Lincoln  passed  on  his  undigested  reading  of  Volney  and 
Paine,  we  do  not  know  what  became  of  that,  nor  need  we 
greatly  care.  It  went  the  way  of  a  good  deal  of  literature 
which  Lincoln  was  producing  at  this  time,  probably  with  no 
dream  that  any  of  it  would  ever  see  a  printing-press.  It  is 
hardly  credible  that  Lincoln,  who  never  printed  a  book  even 
in  his  maturer  years,  should  have  had  serious  purpose  of 
printing  this  particular  bit  of  half-fledged  philosophy. 

But  we  have  knowledge,  and  very  direct  knowledge,  of 
something  else  which  Lincoln  wrote  at  this  time.  We  learn 
of  it  not  by  any  such  circuitous  route  of  hearsay  evidence 
as  accompanies  the  story  of  the  so-called  book  on  infidelity. 
We  learn  of  it  from  a  man  who  received  it  at  Lincoln's  hands 
and  who  read  it  and  remembered  its  contents  and  was  a  com 
petent  witness  not  only  as  to  the  production  of  the  book,  but 
also  as  to  its  argument.  This  is  none  other  than  Mentor 
Graham,  the  schoolmaster  of  New  Salem,  who  introduced 
Lincoln  to  Kirkham's  Grammar,  who  taught  Lincoln  sur 
veying,  who  had  Lincoln  in  his  home  as  a  lodger,  and  who 
knew  more  about  Lincoln's  religious  views  during  his  years 
at  New  Salem  than  any  other  man  who  lived  to  tell  the  world 
about  it  after  Lincoln's  death.  In  Irwin's  article,  which  we 
have  already  quoted,  is  found  this  letter  from  Mentor 
Graham. 

Mentor  Graham  is  a  much  better  witness  than  either 
Mr.  Herndon  or  Colonel  Matheny, — better  because  equally 
honest,  and  a  man  of  less  violent  prejudices  and  of  more  sober 
habits,  and  especially  because  he  had  direct  personal  knowledge 
of  the  facts.  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Irwin,  under  date  of  March 
17,  1874,  Mentor  Graham  relates  that  when  Lincoln  was 
living  in  Graham's  house  in  New  Salem  in  1833,  studying 
English  grammar  and  surveying  under  this  good  schoolmaster, 
Lincoln  one  morning  said  to  him : 

"  Graham,  what  do  you  think  of  the  anger  of  the  Lord?  " 

Graham  replied,  "  I  believe  the  Lord  never  was  angry  or 
mad,  and  never  will  be;  that  His  loving  kindness  endureth 
forever,  and  that  He  never  changes." 


LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK  153 

Lincoln  said,  "  I  have  a  little  manuscript  written  which 
I  will  show  you." 

The  manuscript  was  written  on  foolscap  paper,  about  a 
half -quire  in  size,  and  was  written  in  a  plain  hand.  Mentor 
read  it. 

"  It  was  a  defense  of  universal  salvation.  The  commence 
ment  of  it  was  something  about  the  God  of  the  universe  never 
being  excited,  mad,  or  angry.  I  had  the  manuscript  in  my 
possession  some  week  or  ten  days.  I  have  read  many  books 
on  the  subject,  and  I  don't  think  in  point  of  perspicacity  and 
plainness  of  reasoning  I  ever  read  one  to  surpass  it.  I  remem 
ber  well  his  argument.  He  took  the  passage,  '  As  in  Adam 
all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive/  and  followed 
with  the  proposition  that  whatever  the  breach  or  injury  of 
Adam's  transgression  to  the  human  race  was,  which  no  doubt 
was  very  great,  was  made  right  by  the  atonement  of  Christ." 

On  this  point,  then,  we  have  abundant  witness.  Lincoln 
argued  from  the  fall  of  man  to  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ 
as  the  Baptist  preachers  were  in  the  habit  of  doing,  but  instead 
of  finding  there  the  basis  of  an  argument  for  individual  elec 
tion  and  particular  salvation  or  damnation,  found  in  it  the 
basis  of  faith  in  universal  salvation. 

How  Lincoln  can  have  reconciled  this  kind  of  reasoning 
with  his  readings  from  Thomas  Paine  can  be  understood  by 
those  who  have  read  Paine — which  most  men  who  discuss 
him  have  not — and  who  know  the  form  of  argument  of  the 
backwoods  preachers  which  Lincoln  had  known  all  his  life 
and  little  else  in  the  way  of  reasoned  discourse  in  spiritual 
things.  His  line  of  argument  was  a  not  unnatural  resultant 
of  the  forces  at  work  in  his  mind. 

But  what  about  the  book  which  Hill  burned  ? 

Here  again  we  have  the  personal  knowledge  of  Mentor 
Graham.  He  was  not,  indeed,  actually  present  when  the 
manuscript  was  burned.  No  one,  probably,  was  present, 
except  Hill  and  Lincoln.  But  Graham  was  very  much  nearer 
to  the  event  in  point  both  of  time  and  distance  than  either 
Herndon  or  Matheny,  from  whom  Herndon  learned  about  it, 
and  learned  incorrectly. 


154     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

What  Hill  snatched  from  Lincoln's  hand  and  burned  was 
a  letter  which  Hill  had  written  to  McNamur  about  Ann  Rut- 
ledge.  The  letter  was  lost  and  picked  up  by  the  school  chil 
dren,  who  brought  it  to  Lincoln,  the  postmaster.  Lincoln, 
knowing  Hill's  handwriting,  and  guessing  the  nature  of  the 
letter,  kept  it  to  discuss  with  Hill  alone;  and  they  did  discuss 
it  together.  Hill  was  demanding  of  McNamur  that  he  either 
come  back  to  New  Salem,  or  release  Ann  Rutledge  from  her 
engagement;  and  what  he  learned  was,  that  his  successful 
rival  was  not  now  McNamur,  but  Lincoln.  Here  is  what 
Graham  says  about  it: 

"  Some  of  the  school  children  had  picked  up  the  letter  and 
handed  it  to  Lincoln.  Hill  and  Lincoln  were  talking  about 
it,  when  Hill  snatched  the  letter  from  Lincoln  and  put  it  into 
the  fire.  The  letter  was  respecting  a  young  lady,  Miss  Ann 
Rutledge,  for  whom  all  three  of  these  gentlemen  seemed  to 
have  respect." 

Graham  lived  in  New  Salem  at  the  time  that  this  incident 
occurred.  Neither  Herndon  nor  Matheny  lived  there.  Gra 
ham  left  New  Salem  when  it  ceased  to  be  a  town,  and  spent 
the  remainder  of  his  life  among  the  people  who  had  been 
his  neighbors  in  New  Salem  and  who  became  residents  with 
him  in  the  near-by  town  of  Petersburg.  Graham  had  direct 
access  to  the  facts. 

The  reason  why  it  was  not  much  talked  about  is  evident 
enough.  Hill,  McNamur,  and  Lincoln  all  married,  and  their 
wives  and  children  were  living  not  far  from  where  these 
events  occurred.  The  triangular  misunderstanding  of  three 
young  men  about  a  young  woman  who  had  died  many  years 
before  was  a  matter  for  quiet  gossip  on  the  part  of  the  older 
inhabitants,  but  it  did  not  come  to  the  general  knowledge  of 
the  public  until  Herndon  delivered  his  unwelcome  lecture  on 
Ann  Rutledge.  In  some  things  he  learned  and  told  the  truth. 
But  his  material  had  been  too  hastily  gathered,  and  was  too 
quickly  rushed  into  a  lecture  to  be  reliable  in  all  respects, 
and  it  requires  about  four  titles  to  cover  its  diversified  and 
unstratified  subject-matter. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  burnt  book  is,  therefore,  a  matter 


LINCOLN'S  BURNT  BOOK  155 

in  which  we  come  finally  to  the  remote  recollection  of  James 
Matheny  on  the  one  hand,  who  never  saw  the  book,  and  who 
manifestly  misunderstood  some  parts  of  the  story,  and  the  close 
and  intimate  knowledge  of  Mentor  Graham  on  the  other. 
Lincoln  apparently  told  Matheny  in  confidence  that  he  while 
he  was  living  in  Salem  wrote  an  essay  against  the  Christian 
religion,  and  Matheny  regarded  it  as  a  secret  but  told  it  to 
Herndon.  Herndon  heard  some  gossip  about  a  manuscript 
which  Hill  burned,  and  thought  it  to  have  been  the  same. 
Mentor  Graham  had  reliable  information  as  to  what  it  was 
that  Hill  burned,  and  moreover  knew  from  his  own  personal 
knowledge  that  Lincoln  wrote  a  very  different  manuscript 
than  the  one  of  which  he  told  Matheny,  for  he  himself  had 
read  it,  and  remembered  its  general  nature. 

Why  Lincoln  wrote  on  both  sides  of  the  same  subject  we 
do  not  know  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  ask.  He  may  have 
been  practicing  his  skill  in  debating;  he  may  have  held  one 
view  at  one  time  and  another  at  another;  he  may  have  been 
uncertain  what  view  he  really  held  and  have  been  seeking  to 
formulate  his  opinions.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  judge  his 
mature  opinion  by  our  scant  knowledge  of  what  was  contained 
in  either  of  these  two  manuscripts.  But  the  thing  which 
should  be  remembered  is  that  we  know  more  about  the  book 
in  favor  of  Christianity  than  we  know  of  the  book  against  it. 
Mentor  Graham  was  a  truthful  and  a  competent  witness  and 
he  had  both  seen  and  read  the  book,  which  is  not  true  of 
anyone  through  whom  we  have  knowledge  of  the  other  essay. 

We  are  not  at  liberty  to  draw  the  sharp  distinction  which 
sometimes  has  been  drawn  against  the  rampant  infidelity  of 
Lincoln's  earlier  years  and  the  supposed  orthodoxy  of  his 
mature  life.  Neither  of  these  may  have  been  as  hard  and 
fast  as  have  sometimes  been  assumed.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  never  became  a  Christian  of  the  type 
who  could  have  expressed  his  faith  in  the  terms  of  the  Bateman 
interview ;  it  is  equally  possible  that  even  in  those  callow  years 
when  he  was  reading  Tom  Paine  and  Volney  and  writing  sub- 
sophomoric  effusions  on  things  he  knew  little  about,  the  germ 
of  religious  faith  was  actually  present  even  in  his  doubt. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
"THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE" 

IN  the  spring  of  the  year  1850,  after  the  death  of  their  little 
son  Eddie,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  visited  Mrs.  Lincoln's 
relatives  in  Kentucky.  While  they  were  on  this  visit,  Mr. 
Lincoln  picked  up  a  book  entitled  The  Christian's  Defence,  by 
Rev.  James  Smith.  He  was  interested,  for  Dr.  Smith  was  a 
townsman  of  his,  and  in  the  absence  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  rector 
Dr.  Smith  had  conducted  the  little  boy's  funeral  service  in 
the  Lincoln  home.  Lincoln  read  a  part  but  not  the  whole  of 
the  book  while  on  this  visit.  Dr.  Smith,  as  the  book  showed, 
had  himself  been  a  doubter,  but  had  become  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  had  become  a  valiant 
defender  of  the  faith,  and  an  eager  debater  with  skeptics.  Out 
of  a  three  weeks'  discussion  with  one  of  these  this  book  had 
grown. 

On  his  return  to  Springfield  Mr.  Lincoln  took  occasion 
to  secure  the  book,  and  to  cultivate  a  closer  acquaintance  with 
its  author. 

Lincoln  found  him  well  worth  knowing;  and  the  reader 
of  this  book  deserves  an  introduction  to  him  and  his  work. 

I  have  obtained  from  Miss  Jeanette  E.  Smith,  of  Spring 
field,  granddaughter  of  Rev.  James  Smith,  a  considerable  body 
of  manuscript  and  other  material  relating  to  her  grandfather. 

James  Smith  was  born  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  May  n, 
1801,  and  died  in  Scotland  July  3,  1871.  He  was  the  son  of 
Peter  and  Margaret  Smith.  In  youth  he  was  wild,  and  in 
his  opinions  was  a  deist;  but  when  converted  he  became  a 
fearless  defender  of  the  faith.  He  was  a  big,  brainy  man, 
with  a  great  voice  and  with  positive  convictions.  He  was 
called  from  Shelbyville,  Kentucky,  to  the  First  Church  of 

156 


"  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  "      157 

Springfield,  his  pastorate  beginning  March  14,  1849,  and 
closing  December  17,  1856. 

He  was  a  strong  temperance  man.  His  sermon  on  "  The 
Bottle,  Its  Evils  and  Its  Remedy,"  from  Habakkuk  2:15,  was 
preached  on  January  23,  1853,  and  printed  at  the  request  of 
thirty-nine  men  who  heard  it,  Abraham  Lincoln  being  one  of 
those  who  signed  the  request.  "Friends  of  Temperance" 
they  called  themselves.  I  have  a  copy  of  this  remarkable 
sermon.  In  one  part  it  essayed  a  vindication  of  the  distiller 
and  liquor-seller,  affirming  that  a  community  that  licensed 
them  had  no  right  to  abuse  them  for  doing  what  they  had  paid 
for  the  privilege  of  doing;  and  that  the  State  with  money  in  its 
pocket  received  as  a  share  in  the  product  of  drunkenness  had 
no  right  to  condemn  the  saloonkeeper  for  his  share  in  the 
partnership.  He  called  on  the  Legislature  then  in  session 
to  pass  a  prohibitory  law,  forbidding  all  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquor  except  for  medical,  mechanical,  and  sacramental 
purposes. 

Such  sermons  became  abundant  forty  years  afterward, 
but  they  were  not  abundant  in  1853.  Dr.  Smith  was  one  of 
the  men  who  held  these  convictions,  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  one  of  the  men  who  wanted  to  see  them  printed  and 
circulated. 

It  is  remarkable  that  all  knowledge  of  the  massive  book 
which  Dr.  Smith  wrote  and  published  should  have  perished 
from  Springfield.  Lamon  manifestly  knew  nothing  of  it  as 
a  book,  but  thought  of  it  as  a  manuscript  tract,  prepared 
especially  for  the  ambitious  business  of  converting  Mr.  Lincoln. 
His  sarcastic  description  implies  this,  and  Herndon,  who 
may  have  known  better  at  the  time,  had  apparently  for 
gotten.  Both  men  were  disqualified  for  the  discussion  of  it 
by  their  ignorance  of  it,  as  well  as  the  violence  of  their  preju 
dice. 

On  February  12,  1909,  a  service  was  held  in  the  old  First 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Springfield,  then  occupied  by  the 
Lutherans,  the  Presbyterians  having  erected  a  larger  building. 
The  address  was  given  by  Rev.  Thomas  D.  Logan,  Dr.  Smith's 
successor,  whose  pastorate  had  begun  in  1888.  In  all  the 


158    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

more  than  twenty  years  of  his  ministry  in  Springfield,  he 
had  never  seen  this  book.  He  had  never  known  of  it  as  a 
book  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  first  draft  of  this  centenary 
address.  The  substance  of  the  address  he  sent  in  advance 
as  an  article  for  the  Lincoln  Number  of  The  Continent  in 
February,  1909;  but  in  the  revision  of  the  proof  he  inserted 
a  footnote  saying  that  Dr.  Smith's  granddaughter,  Miss 
Jeanette  E.  Smith,  had  come  into  possession  of  a  copy  of 
her  grandfather's  book,  which  he  had  just  seen. 

The  prime  reason  for  this  complete  ignorance  of  the  book, 
even  in  the  church  which  Lincoln  attended,  is  that  it  was 
published  six  years  before  Dr.  Smith  came  to  Springfield,  in  a 
limited  edition,  and  completely  sold  out  before  it  came  from 
the  press;  so  that  it  never  came  into  general  circulation  in 
Springfield. 

Miss  Smith  has  placed  at  my  disposal  her  own  copy  of  this 
book,  which  was  her  grandfather's,  and  I  have  been  able 
to  locate  about  a  half-dozen  copies  in  various  public  libraries, 
and  by  rare  good  fortune  to  buy  one  for  myself. 

Dr.  Smith's  statement  was  made  in  a  letter  from  Cainno, 
Scotland,  dated  January  24,  1867: 

"  It  was  my  honor  to  place  before  Mr.  Lincoln  arguments 
designed  to  prove  the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  accompanied  by  the  arguments  of  infidel  objec 
tors  in  their  own  language.  To  the  arguments  on  both  sides 
Mr.  Lincoln  gave  a  most  patient,  impartial,  and  searching 
investigation.  To  use  his  own  language,  he  examined  the 
arguments  as  a  lawyer  who  is  anxious  to  investigate  truth 
investigates  testimony.  The  result  was  the  announcement 
made  by  himself  that  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  divine 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  was  unanswer 
able." — REV.  JAMES  A.  REED:  "  The  Later  Life  and  Religious 
Sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln/'  Scribner's  Magazine,  July, 
1873,  P-  333- 

Mr.  Thomas  Lewis,  a  lawyer  whose  office  adjoined  that 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Springfield,  and  who  for  a  time  was  in  the 
same  office,  was  an  elder  in  the  church  which  Lincoln  attended. 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  "      159 

In  1898  he  wrote  his  recollections  of  Dr.  Smith's  book  and 
its  influence  upon  Mr.  Lincoln: 

"  I  was  an  elder,  trustee,  treasurer,  collector,  superintendent 
of  the  Sunday  school,  and  pew-renter.  The  following  Tues 
day,  after  the  second  Sunday,  Mr.  Lincoln  called  on  me  and 
inquired  if  there  were  any  pews  to  rent  in  the  church.  I 
replied,  '  Yes,  and  a  very  desirable  one,  vacated  by  Governor 
Madison,  who  has  just  left  the  city/  'What  is  the  rent?' 
said  he.  '  Fifty  dollars,  payable  quarterly/  He  handed  me 
$12.50.  Said  he,  '  Put  it  down  to  me/  From  that  date  he 
paid  each  three  months  on  said  pew  until  he  left  for  Wash 
ington;  and  from  the  first  Sunday  he  was  there  I  have  not 
known  of  his  not  occupying  that  pew  every  Sunday  he  was 
in  the  city  until  he  left.  The  seat  was  immediately  in  front 
of  mine.  The  third  Sunday  his  children  came  in  the  Sunday 
school. 

"  Shortly  thereafter  there  was  a  revival  in  the  church, 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln,  when  he  was  in  the  city,  attended 
meeting.  In  his  absence  she  was  there.  They  attended  not 
only  the  regular  meetings,  but  the  inquiry  meetings  also,  and 
it  was  the  belief  that  both  would  unite  with  the  church.  When 
the  candidates  were  examined  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  Detroit, 
prosecuting  a  patent  right  case,  a  branch  of  the  profession 
in  which  he  had  acquired  an  enviable  reputation.  Mrs.  Lin 
coln  stated  that  she  was  confirmed  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
when  twelve  years  of  age,  but  did  not  wish  to  join  the  church 
by  letter,  but  upon  profession  of  faith,  as  she  was  never 
converted  until  Dr.  Smith's  preaching.  She  was  admitted 
[1852].  Mr.  Lincoln  never  applied.  Some  months  later  the 
session  of  the  church  invited  Mr.  Lincoln  to  deliver  a  lecture 
on  the  Bible.  When  it  became  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
to  lecture  in  the  Presbyterian  church  it  assured  a  full  house. 
It  was  said  by  divines  and  others  to  be  the  ablest  defense  of 
the  Bible  ever  uttered  in  that  pulpit. 

"  From  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  Dr.  Smith 
their  intimacy  was  of  a  most  cordial  character.  At  their 
last  meeting  previous  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  leaving  for  Wash 
ington,  as  they  parted,  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  '  Doctor,  I  wish  to 
be  remembered  in  the  prayers  of  yourself  and  our  church 
members/  " — Illinois  State  Register,  December  10,  1898. 


160    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

A  very  interesting  bit  of  testimony  to  the  relations  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  his  pastor,  Dr.  Smith,  was  given  by  Rev.  William 
Bishop,  D.D.,  in  an  address  at  Salina,  Kansas,  on  February 
12,  1897,  and  published  in  the  local  papers  at  the  time.  Dr. 
Bishop  was  graduated  from  Illinois  College  in  1850,  and  for 
a  time  was  a  member  of  the  faculty  there.  In  the  summer 
after  his  graduation,  he  supplied  Dr.  Smith's  pulpit  during 
his  vacation : 

"  I  first  met  Dr.  Smith  in  the  summer  of  1850  in  Jackson 
ville,  at  the  commencement  exercises  of  Illinois  College,  from 
which  I  had  graduated  and  had  just  been  appointed  a  member 
of  the  faculty  of  instruction.  The  acquaintance  then  formed 
ripened  into  mutual  and  congenial  friendship.  And  during 
the  two  years  of  my  connection  with  the  college  I  was  fre 
quently  a  visitor  and  guest  at  his  house  in  Springfield,  and 
when,  by  reason  of  removal  to  another  institution  in  another 
State,  the  visits  were  fewer  and  farther  between,  '  a  free 
epistolary  correspondence '  continued  to  strengthen  and 
brighten  the  links  of  fellowship.  With  his  other  accomplish 
ments,  Dr.  Smith  was  an  interesting  and  instructive  conver 
sationalist — in  fact,  quite  a  raconteur,  somewhat  like  his  friend 
Lincoln,  always  ready  with  a  story  to  illustrate  his  opinions, 
and  which  gave  piquancy  to  his  conversation.  Whenever  he 
had  occasion  to  speak  of  Lincoln  he  always  evinced  the 
strongest  attachment  and  the  warmest  friendship  for  him, 
which  was  known  to  be  fully  reciprocated.  Democrat  as  he 
was,  and  tinged  with  Southern  hues — though  never  a  seces 
sionist — there  seemed  to  be  a  mystic  cord  uniting  the  minister 
and  the  lawyer.  This  was  subsequently  beautifully  shown 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  never  forgot  to  do  a  generous 
thing.  When  he  was  elected  President  Dr.  Smith  and  wife 
were  getting  old,  their  children  all  married  and  gone,  except 
their  youngest1  son,  a  young  man  of  twenty-three  or  four 
years  of  age.  One  of  Lincoln's  first  official  acts,  after  his 
inauguration,  was  the  appointment  of  this  young  man  to  the 
consulate  at  Dundee,  Scotland.  The  doctor,  with  his  wife  and 
son,  returned  to  the  land  of  his  birth.  The  son  soon  returned 

1 1  am  informed  that  this  is  a  slight  error.  Dr.  Smith  had  another 
son,  still  younger. 


"  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  "      161 

to  America,  and  Dr.  Smith  himself  was  appointed  consul, 
which  position  he  retained  until  his  death  in  1871. 

"  In  the  spring  of  1857  Dr.  Smith,  anticipating  a  necessary 
absence  from  his  church  of  two  or  three  months  during  the 
summer,  invited  me  to  supply  his  pulpit  until  his  return. 
Being  young  and  inexperienced  in  the  ministry,  with  con 
siderable  hesitation  I  accepted  his  urgent  invitation.  So  I 
spent  my  college  vacation  performing  as  best  I  could  this 
service.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  regular  attendant  at  church  and 
evidently  an  attentive  hearer  and  devout  worshiper. 

"  As  a  college  student  I  had  seen  and  heard  him  and  looked 
up  to  him  as  a  being  towering  above  common  men;  and,  I 
confess,  I  was  not  a  little  intimidated  by  his  presence  as  he 
sat  at  the  end  of  a  seat  well  forward  toward  the  pulpit,  with 
his  deep  eyes  fixed  upon  me,  and  his  long  legs  stretched  out 
in  the  middle  aisle  to  keep  them  from  [using  one  of  his  own 
colloquialisms]  being  scrouged  in  the  narrow  space  between 
the  pews.  My  '  stage  fright,'  however,  was  soon  very  much 
relieved  by  his  kindliness  and  words  of  encouragement. 

"  On  a  certain  Sunday,  the  third,  as  I  recollect  it,  in  my 
term  of  service,  I  delivered  a  discourse  on  the  text,  '  Without 
God  in  the  World/  The  straight  translation  from  the  Greek 
is,  '  Atheists  in  the  World/  In  discussing  atheism,  theoretical 
and  practical,  I  endeavored  to  elucidate  and  enforce  the  fallacy 
of  the  one  and  the  wickedness  of  the  other.  At  the  close  of 
the  service  Mr.  Lincoln  came  up  and,  putting  his  right  hand 
in  mine  and  his  left  on  my  shoulder,  with  other  impressive 
remarks,  said,  '  I  can  say  "  Amen  "  to  all  that  you  have  said 
this  morning/  From  that  time  on  my  interest  in  him  grew 
apace. 

"  He  was  then  known  extensively  all  over  the  West  as  a 
great  and  good  man,  and  only  a  year  afterward  he  bounded 
into  national  fame  by  his  victory  in  the  great  debate  with 
Douglas,  who,  up  to  that  time,  was  regarded  as  a  debater 
invincible. 

"  During  my  brief  sojourn  in  Springfield  I  had  many 
opportunities  of  meeting  Lincoln,  hearing  him,  and  talking 
with  him  at  home,  in  church,  in  society,  and  in  the  courts 
of  justice. 

"  Dr.  Smith  returned  in  due  time  to  resume  his  pastoral 


162    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

functions.  In  reporting  to  him,  in  general,  my  labors  in  the 
church  as  his  substitute  during  his  absence,  and  in  particular 
my  conceptions  of  Lincoln's  religious  character,  he  intimated 
that  he  knew  something  of  Lincoln's  private  personal  religious 
experiences,  feelings,  and  beliefs  which  resulted  in  his  con 
version  to  the  Christian  faith.  After  some  urging  to  be 
more  explicit,  he  made  the  following  statement,  which  is 
herewith  submitted,  couched  substantially  in  his  own  language. 
The  doctor  said : 

" '  I  came  to  Springfield  to  take  the  pastoral  charge  of 
this  church  [First  Presbyterian]  about  eight  years  ago 
[1849].  During  the  first  of  these  years,  I  might  say,  I  had 
only  a  speaking  or  general  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Lincoln 
[then  forty  years  old].  Two  or  three  years  previous  to  my 
coming  here  Mrs.  Lincoln,  who  had  been  a  member  of  our 
church,  for  some  reason  changed  her  church  relations  and  was 
a  regular  attendant  at  the  services  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  at  that  time,  having  no  denominational  prefer 
ences,  went  with  her.  And  so  the  family  continued  to  fre 
quent  the  sanctuary  for  a  year  or  more  after  I  began  my 
ministry  here.  The  occasion  which  opened  up  the  way  to  my 
intimate  relations  to  Mr.  Lincoln  was  this,  viz. :  In  the  latter 
part  of  1849  death  came  into  his  family.  His  second  son 
died  at  about  three  or  four  years  of  age.  The  rector,  an 
excellent  clergyman,  being  temporarily  absent,  could  not  be 
present  to  conduct  the  burial  service,  and  I  was  called  to 
officiate  at  the  funeral.  This  led  me  to  an  intimate  acquaint 
ance  with  the  family,  and  grew  into  an  enduring  and  confi 
dential  friendship  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself.  One 
result  was  that  the  wife  and  mother  returned  to  her  ancestral 
church,  and  the  husband  and  father  very  willingly  came  with 
her,  and  ever  since  has  been  a  constant  attendant  upon  my 
ministry.  I  found  him  very  much  depressed  and  downcast 
at  the  death  of  his  son,  and  without  the  consolation  of  the 
gospel.  Up  to  this  time  I  had  heard  but  little  concerning 
his  religious  views,  and  that  was  to  the  effect  that  he  was  a 
deist  and  inclined  to  skepticism  as  to  the  divine  origin  of  the 
Scriptures,  though,  unlike  most  skeptics,  he  had  evidently  been 
a  constant  reader  of  the  Bible.  I  found  him  an  honest  and 
anxious  inquirer.  He  gradually  revealed  the  state  of  his 
mind  and  heart,  and  at  last  unbosomed  his  doubts  and  struggles 


"  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  "     163 

and  unrest  of  soul.  In  frequent  conversations  I  found  that 
he  was  perplexed  and  unsettled  on  the  fundamentals  of 
religion,  by  speculative  difficulties,  connected  with  Providence 
and  revelation,  which  lie  beyond  and  above  the  legitimate  prov 
ince  of  religion.  With  some  suggestions  bearing  on  the 
right  attitude  required  for  impartial  investigation,  I  placed  in 
his  hands  my  book  (The  Christian's  Defence)  on  the  evidence 
of  Christianity,  which  gives  the  arguments  for  and  against 
the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  book,  and  for  a  number  of  weeks,  as 
a  lawyer,  examined  and  weighed  the  evidence,  pro  and  con, 
and  judged  of  the  credibility  of  the  contents  of  revelation. 
And  while  he  was  investigating  I  was  praying  that  the  Spirit 
of  Truth  might  lead  him  into  the  kingdom  of  truth.  And 
such  was  the  result,  for  at  the  conclusion  of  his  examination 
he  came  forth  his  doubts  scattered  to  the  winds  and  his  reason 
convinced  by  the  arguments  in  support  of -the  inspired  and 
infallible  authority  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments — a  believer 
in  God,  in  His  providential  government,  in  His  Son,  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life,  and  from  that  time  [nearly  seven  years] 
to  this  day  his  life  has  proved  the  genuineness  of  his  conver 
sion  to  the  Christian  faith.  For  this  I  humbly  ascribe  to  our 
heavenly  Father  the  honor  and  the  glory/ ' 

In  an  earlier  statement  than  that  previously  quoted,  Mr. 
Thomas  Lewis,  under  date  of  January  6,  1873,  said : 

"  Not  long  after  Dr.  Smith  came  to  Springfield,  and  I 
think  very  near  the  time  of  his  son's  death,  Mr.  Lincoln  said 
to  me  that  when  on  a  visit  somewhere  he  had  seen  and  par 
tially  read  a  work  of  Dr.  Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Chris 
tianity,  which  had  led  him  to  change  his  view  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  he  would  like  to  get  that  work  and  finish  the 
reading  of  it,  and  also  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Smith. 
I  was  an  elder  in  Dr.  Smith's  church,  and  took  Dr.  Smith  to 
Mr.  Lincoln's  office,  and  Dr.  Smith  gave  Mr.  Lincoln  a  copy 
of  his  book,  as  I  know,  at  his  own  request." 

This  is  a  very  different  story  from  that  which  Lamon 
tells,  of  a  self -advertising  preacher,  ostentatiously  preparing 


164    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

a  tract  to  convert  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  thrusting  it  upon  him 
uninvited  and  thereafter  to  be  neglected. 

That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  impressed  by  the  book  is  as  certain 
as  human  testimony  can  make  it.  He  told  Dr.  Smith  that  he 
regarded  its  argument  as  "  unanswerable,"  and  Lamon's  slight 
ing  remark  will  not  stand  against  so  emphatic  a  word. 

Moreover,  Hon.  John  T.  Stuart,  whom  Lamon  had  quoted 
as  saying,  "  The  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  who  wrote  a  letter,  tried 
to  convert  Lincoln  as  late  as  1858,  and  couldn't  do  it,"  repudi 
ated  that  statement,  declared  he  never  had  said  it ;  and  on  the 
contrary  affirmed  that  he  understood  from  those  who  had 
reason  to  know  that  Dr.  Smith's  book  had  produced  a  change 
in  the  mind  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Ninian  W.  Edwards,  Mr.  Lincoln's  brother-in-law,  on 
December  24,  1872,  entered  the  discussion  with  this  emphatic 
statement : 

"  A  short  time  after  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  became  pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  city,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said  to  me,  *  I  have  been  reading  a  work  of  Dr.  Smith  on  the 
evidences  of  Christianity,  and  have  heard  him  preach  and 
converse  on  the  subject,  and  am  now  convinced  of  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion.' ' 

Just  what  doctrines  he  was  convinced  were  true,  we  may 
not  know.  But  we  do  know  that  he  requested  the  book  and 
declared  it  unanswerable,  that  he  and  his  wife  changed  their 
church  affiliation  and  he  became  a  regular  attendant,  that  Dr. 
Smith  became  his  friend  and  was  honored  and  recognized  by 
him  as  long  as  Lincoln  lived,  and  that  those  who  knew  Lincoln 
best  were  told  by  him  that  some  change  had  come  in  his 
own  belief. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  word  and  work  of  Rev.  James 
Smith  are  not  to  be  thrown  unceremoniously  out  of  court. 
They  have  standing  in  any  fair  consideration  of  the  question 
of  Lincoln's  religious  faith. 

I  have  looked  through  many  Lives  of  Lincoln  to  discover 
whether  any  biographer  of  Lincoln  had  ever  looked  up  this 
book,  and  thus  far  have  not  discovered  any.  I  have  inquired 


'  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  "      165 

for  the  book  at  the  Chicago  Historical  Library  and  the  Illinois 
Historical  Library,  and  neither  of  those  libraries  contains  it, 
nor  had  it  been  thought  of  in  connection  with  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Oldroyd  does  not  have  it  in  his  matchless  collection,  where 
I  hoped  I  might  find  the  veritable  copy  that  Lincoln  read,  and 
he  had  never  heard  of  it;  nor  does  the  matron  of  the  Lincoln 
Home  at  Springfield  know  anything  about  it.2 

1  shall  give  in  the  Appendix  of  this  book  an  outline  of 
the  contents  of  Dr.  Smith's  solid  work,  that  the  reader  may 
judge  for  himself  whether  such  a  book,  placed  in  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  at  such  a  time,  may  not  have  had  upon  his 
mind  all  the  influence  that  Dr.  Smith  ever  claimed  for  it. 

2  There  are  three  copies  in  Chicago,  one  in  the  library  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Chicago,  one  in  the  library  of  McCormick  Theological  Sem 
inary,  and  one  in  my  own  library.  There  are  copies  also  in  the  libraries 
of  Union   Theological   Seminary,   New  York ;    Center   College,   Danville, 
Kentucky;  the  College  of  the  Bible,  Lexington,  Kentucky;   the  Library 
of   Congress,   and   Lane   Theological    Seminary,    Cincinnati.     These,   and 
the  one   owned  by   Miss   Smith,  are  the   only   copies   of   which    I   have 
learned  thus  far;  though  doubtless  there  are  others  in  dusty  attics. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
"  VESTIGES  OF  CREATION  " 

LINCOLN  was  a  man  of  few  books.  Much  has  been  made  of 
the  fact  that  when  a  lad  he  eagerly  read  every  book  within 
reach ;  but  he  did  not  continue  that  habit  in  his  mature  years. 
Something  happened  to  the  lad  in  adolescence  that  changed  him 
mentally  as  well  as  physically.  His  sudden  upshoot  in  stature 
permanently  tired  him ;  he  became  disinclined  to  activity.  His 
movements  were  much  slower,  and  his  habits  of  thought  more 
sluggish.  Arnold  attempts  to  make  a  list  of  his  "  favorite 
books,"  but  does  not  make  much  progress  (Life  of  Lincoln, 
pp.  443,  444).  About  all  there  is  to  be  said  is  that  he  read 
the  Bible  both  as  a  boy  and  man,  and  came  to  have  an  appre 
ciation  and  love  of  Shakspeare,  particuarly  Hamlet  and 
Macbeth,  but  he  never  read  Shakspeare  through.  He  was  fond 
of  some  of  the  poems  of  Burns,  the  rollicking  humor  of 
"  Tarn  o'  Shanter,"  the  withering  scorn — an  element  which 
had  a  considerable  place  in  Lincoln's  nature — of  "  Holy  Wil 
lie's  Prayer,"  the  manly  democracy  of  "  A  Man's  a  Man  for  a* 
That  " ;  but  he  never  quoted  Burns.  He  had  little  appreciation 
of  music,  but  liked  negro  melodies — not  the  genuine  ones, 
but  the  minstrel-show  sort — camp-meeting  ballads,  Scotch 
songs,  and  mournful  narrative  compositions,  of  which  the 
woods  were  moderately  full  in  his  boyhood,  and  which  he 
continued  to  enjoy.  Broadly  humorous  songs  moved  him  to 
mirth,  but  he  cared  more  for  those  that  were  sad.  Everyone 
knows  his  love  for  the  mediocre  but  melodious  poem,  "  O 
Why  Should  the  Spirit  of  Mortal  be  Proud,"  which  like  the 
religious  song  he  loved,  "  How  tedious  and  tasteless  the 
hours,"  moved  mournfully  in  triple  time,  flaunting  crepe  in 
the  face  of  the  spirit  of  the  waltz.  About  the  only  con 
temporary  poem  which  he  is  known  to  have  cared  much  for 

166 


"  VESTIGES  OF  CREATION  r  167 

was  Holmes'   "Last  Leaf,"   in  which  he  was  particularly 
moved  by  the  lines, — 

"  The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  prest, 

In  their  bloom, 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb" 

Herndon  is  correct  in  saying  that  Lincoln  read  less  and 
thought  more  than  any  man  prominent  in  public  life  in  his 
generation. 

But  the  few  books  that  Lincoln  read  in  his  mature  years 
affected  him  greatly;  and  when  we  know  of  his  reading  a 
book  because  he  cared  for  it,  we  may  well  endeavor  to  discover 
that  book  and  inquire  whether  it  be  not  possible  to  trace  its 
influence  in  the  development,  slow  but  sure,  of  the  mental  and 
spiritual  processes  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

A  highly  important  statement  concerning  the  philosophical 
and  religious  views  of  Lincoln  is  found  in  Herndon's  Life  of 
Lincoln,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  neither  Herndon  nor  any  of 
the  hundreds  of  writers  who  have  gleaned,  as  all  must  glean, 
from  his  pages,  appears  to  have  followed  further  the  most 
important  of  its  suggestions : 

"  For  many  years  I  subscribed  for  and  kept  on  our  office 
table  the  Westminster  and  Edinburgh  Review  and  a  number  of 
other  English  periodicals.  Besides  them,  I  purchased  the 
works  of  Spencer,  Darwin,  and  the  utterances  of  other  English 
scientists,  all  of  which  I  devoured  with  great  relish.  I  en 
deavored,  but  with  little  success,  in  inducing  Lincoln  to  read 
them.  Occasionally  he  would  snatch  one  up  and  peruse  it  for 
a  little  while,  but  he  soon  threw  it  down  with  the  suggestion 
that  it  was  entirely  too  heavy  for  an  ordinary  mind  to  digest. 
A  gentleman  in  Springfield  gave  him  a  book  called,  I  believe, 
Vestiges  of  Creation,  which  interested  him  so  much  that  he 
read  it  through.  The  volume  was  published  in  Edinburgh,  and 
undertook  to  demonstrate  the  doctrine  of  development,  or  evo 
lution.  The  treatise  interested  him  greatly,  and  he  was  deeply 
impressed  with  the  notion  of  the  so-called  '  universal  law ' 
evolution;  he  did  not  extend  greatly  his  researches,  but  by 


168     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

continual  thinking  in  a  single  channel  seemed  to  grow  into  a 
warm  advocate  of  the  new  doctrine.  Beyond  what  I  have 
stated  he  made  no  further  advances  into  the  realm  of  philoso 
phy.  '  There  are  no  accidents/  he  said  one  day,  *  in  my  phi 
losophy.  Every  effect  must  have  its  cause.  The  past  is  the 
cause  of  the  present,  and  the  present  will  be  the  cause  of  the 
future.  All  these  are  links  in  the  endless  chain  stretching  from 
the  Infinite  to  the  finite.'  " — HERNDON,  III,  438. 

I  count  it  remarkable  that  neither  Herndon  nor  any  other 
of  Lincoln's  biographers  appears  to  have  made  further  inquiry 
about  this  book,  which  is  not  mentioned  in  Herndon's  index, 
and  which  I  have  not  found  referred  to  elsewhere  in  connec 
tion  with  Lincoln.  The  book  is  not  in  any  of  the  great  Lincoln 
collections  which  I  have  visited,  nor  has  any  Lincoln  student 
to  whom  I  have  mentioned  it  had  it  in  mind,  or  failed  to  be 
impressed  with  the  value  of  it  when  we  have  discussed  the 
matter. 

The  book  itself  is  not  in  the  Lincoln  Home  at  Springfield, 
nor  is  it  in  the  Oldroyd  Collection  at  Washington,  in  one  of 
which  places  I  hoped  that  it  might  be  found.  Neither  the 
librarian  of  the  Illinois  Historical  Society  in  Springfield,  nor 
Mr.  Barker,  the  painstaking  and  discriminating  collector  and 
vendor  of  Lincoln  books  in  Springfield,  had  ever  noticed  the 
title  in  Herndon's  book,  though  both  were  at  once  impressed 
with  its  significance  when  I  called  it  to  their  attention. 

The  material  in  Herndon's  lectures  on  Lincoln  is  pretty 
well  absorbed  in  his  book,  and  quoted  in  this  volume ;  but  there 
are  some  interesting  additional  details  in  Herndon's  letters. 
In  these,  answering  specific  questions  or  replying  to  definite 
statements,  he  now  and  then  added  a  statement  which  was  not 
later  included  in  his  book,  but  which  has  present  interest  and 
in  some  cases  value. 

The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  a  letter  of  Herndon  to 
John  E.  Remsburg,  and  bears  in  an  important  way  on  Lincoln's 
use  of  Vestiges  of  Creation: 

"  I  had  an  excellent  private  library,  probably  the  best  in  the 
city  for  admired  books.  To  this  library  Mr.  Lincoln  had,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  full  and  free  access  at  all  times.  I  pur- 


"  VESTIGES  OF  CREATION  r          169 

chased  such  books  as  Locke,  Kant,  Fichte,  Lewes ;  Sir  William 
Hamilton's  Discussions  of  Philosophy;  Spencer's  First  Prin 
ciples,  Social  Studies,  etc. ;  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization, 
and  Lecky's  History  of  Rationalism.  I  also  possessed  the 
works  of  Parker,  Paine,  Emerson  and  Strauss;  Gregg's  Creed 
of  Christendom,  McNaught  on  Inspiration,  Volney's  Ruins, 
Feuer bach's  Essence  of  Christianity,  and  other  works  on  In 
fidelity.  Mr.  Lincoln  read  some  of  these  works.  About  the 
year  1843  *  ne  borrowed  the  Vestiges  of  Creation  of  Mr. 
James  W.  Keys,  of  this  city,  and  read  it  carefully.  He  subse 
quently  read  the  sixth  edition  of  this  work,  which  I  loaned  him. 
He  adopted  the  progressive  and  development  theory  as  taught 
more  or  less  directly  in  that  work.  He  despised  speculation, 
especially  in  the  metaphysical  world.  He  was  purely  a  practical 
man." — REMSBURG:  Six  Historic  Americans,  pp.  114-15. 

As  already  stated  Dr.  Smith's  book  The  Christian's  De 
fence  is  excessively  rare.  The  edition  was  small;  the  argu 
ment  which  it  contained  was  modified  with  the  progress  of 
discovery ;  there  was  little  to  keep  in  circulation  the  few  copies 
of  the  book  that  survived.  They  have  nearly  all  disappeared. 
I  have  searched  the  second-hand  shops  of  the  principal  cities 
and  the  dusty  duplicates  of  libraries  with  repeated  disappoint 
ment.  For  this  reason,  I  have  carried  a  complete  analysis  of 
the  book  into  the  Appendix  of  this  volume ;  for  few  who  read 
the  present  volume  will  be  able  to  see  the  book  itself. 

It  is  quite  otherwise  with  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History 
of  Creation.  It  was  widely  circulated,  and  copies  of  even  the 
older  editions  are  not  impossible  to  obtain.  It  can  be  pur 
chased,  new,  at  very  small  cost.2  But  most  of  the  editions 
that  the  reader  will  be  likely  to  find,  if  he  seeks  for  them,  are 
later  than  the  one  which  influenced  Lincoln,  and  contain  more 
or  less  of  supplementary  matter. 

Before  passing  to  another  subject,  it  will  be  well  to  say  a 
further  word  about  this  book,  for  a  fuller  discussion  of  which 
one  may  go  to  Andrew  D.  White's  Conflict  of  Science  with 
Theology  and  other  learned  works. 

1  This  date  is  wrong.    The  book  was  not  published  until  1844. 

2  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation,  by  Robert  Chambers, 
is  published  still  by  E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  New  York,  and  sold  at  75  cents. 
This  is  an  excellent  reprint  of  the  first  Edinburgh  edition,  which  Lincoln 
first  read. 


170     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

The  author  of  this  book  was  Robert  Chambers/  one  of  the 
famous  firm  of  publishers,  and  himself  an  author  of  note. 
He  was  born  in  Peebles,  Scotland,  July  10,  1802,  and  died 
at  St.  Andrews,  March  17,  1871.  He  was  an  author  as  well 
as  publisher  of  books.  He  published  this  book  anonymously, 
and  its  authorship  was  not  known  for  forty  years.  In  1884, 
thirteen  years  after  his  death,  his  name  appeared  for  the  first 
time  upon  the  title  page  of  a  new  edition. 

It  was,  in  the  author's  own  phrase,  "  the  first  attempt  to 
connect  the  natural  sciences  with  the  history  of  creation." 

From  it  Lincoln  learned  geology  and  comparative  biology. 
In  it  he  found  not  only  studies  of  the  rocks,  but  also  of  the 
prenatal  life  of  man,  as  related  in  its  successive  stages  to  cor 
responding  types  in  the  geological  world.  It  was,  in  a  word, 
an  introduction  to  Darwin,  which  appeared  many  years  later. 

That  many  ministers  denounced  it  as  contradictory  to  the 

8  It  is  now  known  that  it  was  through  the  influence  of  Robert 
Chambers  that  T.  H.  Huxley  was  present  and  made  his  famous  reply 
to  Bishop  Wilberforce  at  Oxford  in  1860.  Huxley  was  ir  Oxford,  but 
intended  to  have  left  that  morning  because  he  believed  that  the  discussion 
would  take  a  theological,  or  other  than  a  scientific  turn,  and  would  be 
unprofitable,  but  "  on  the  Friday  afternoon  he  chanced  to  meet  Robert 
Chambers,  the  reputed  author  of  the  Vestiges  of  Creation,  who  begged 
him  not  to  desert  them,  accordingly  he  postponed  his  departure"  (Life 
and  Letters  of  Thomas  H.  Huxley,  by  his  Son,  I,  193).  In  this  discus 
sion  Bishop  Wilberforce,  in  closing  a  half-hour's  clever,  but  unfair 
speech,  turned  to  Huxley  and  asked  him  whether  it  was  on  the  side  of 
Huxley's  grandfather  or  grandmother  that  he  claimed  his  own  descent 
from  a  monkey?  Huxley  endured  the  laughter  and  applause  which  fol 
lowed  this  personal  sally  with  something  more  than  good  nature.  He 
turned  to  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  who  sat  beside  him,  and  slapping  his 
knee,  exclaimed :  "  The  Lord  hath  delivered  him  into  my  hands ! "  It 
was  even  so.  Huxley  rose  to  reply,  and  said  that  he  would  not  be 
ashamed  of  having  a  monkey  as  an  ancestor,  but  he  would  be  ashamed 
of  any  relationship  to  a  gifted  man,  who,  not  content  with  success  in  his 
own  sphere  of  activity,  plunged  into  a  discussion  of  matters  of  which 
he  had  no  real  acquaintance  "  only  to  obscure  them  by  an  aimless  rhetoric, 
and  distract  the  attention  of  his  hearers  from  the  real  point  at  issue  by 
eloquent  digressions,  and  skilled  appeals  to  religious  prejudice." 

In  its  way  that  speech  established  the  popularity  of  Huxley  as  a 
debater,  and  effectually  punctured  one  argument  then  coming  into  use 
in  the  discussion  of  evolution.  It  also  was  an  incident  hever  forgotten 
concerning  Bishop  Wilberforce.  Huxley  afterward  wrote,  "  In  justice 
to  the  Bishop,  I  am  bound  to  say  he  bore  me  no  malice,  but  was  always 
courtesy  itself  when  we  met  in  after  years."  In  the  same  letter  Huxley 
says,  "  The  odd  part  of  the  business  is,  that  I  should  not  have  been 
present  except  for  Robert  Chambers." 


"VESTIGES  OF  CREATION'  171 

Bible  we  know,  and  the  author  anticipated  this,  nor  is  this  a 
matter  which  gives  us  present  concern.  Some  ministers  be 
lieved  it,  and  others,  still  unconvinced,  read  it  with  an  open 
mind  and  waited  for  more  light. 

The  important  thing  for  us  to  know  and  clearly  recognize 
is  that  in  this  book  Abraham  Lincoln  not  only  learned  what 
Herndon  considers,  and  we  are  justified  in  considering,  the 
essential  theory  of  evolution,  but  he  learned  that  such  a  view 
of  creation  is  consistent  with  faith  in  God  and  the  Bible. 

We  shall  not  find  it  possible  to  overestimate  the  importance 
of  this  discovery.  Abraham  Lincoln  wrought  out  his  philoso 
phy  of  creation,  his  scheme  of  cause  and  effect,  his  theory  of 
the  processes  of  nature  and  life,  under  influences  not  atheistic 
nor  hostile  to  religion,  but  distinctly  favorable  to  it.  He 
learned  of  evolution,  and  was  convinced  of  its  truth,  from  a 
book  whose  spirit  and  purpose  was  to  present  the  view  in 
harmony  with  the  Christian  faith. 

The  second,  and  subsequent  editions,  of  Vestiges  were 
"  Greatly  Amended  by  the  Author,"  as  the  title  page  gave 
notice,  and  the  changes  were  partly  to  incorporate  new  scien 
tific  data,  but  more  to  make  clear  the  fact  that  the  author's 
theory  did  not  remove  God  from  his  universe,  as  some  critics 
had  asserted,  but  like  Butler's  Analogy  had  shown  that  God  is 
in  His  world,  working  through  the  processes  of  nature.  In 
1846  appeared  Explanations:  A  Sequel  to  Vestiges  of  the 
Natural  History  of  Creation,  a  thin  volume  added  to  carry  still 
further  this  double  purpose,  and  doing  it  with  marked  success. 
The  sixth  edition  combined  the  two  in  one  volume. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  that  Lincoln,  having  read  the  first 
edition,  later  procured  and  read  the  sixth,  in  which  the  religious 
spirit  of  the  author  was  made  still  more  apparent. 

This  was  the  book  which  gave  to  Lincoln  his  theory  of 
creation,  of  "  miracles  under  law,"  and  with  one  divine  mind 
and  purpose  working  through  it  all.  Lincoln  read  little  of 
natural  science  and  cared  practically  nothing  for  philosophy, 
but  he  found  in  this  book  what  he  needed  of  both;  and  he 
found  them  in  a  system  whose  soul  and  center  was  the  will 
of  a  righteous  God. 


CHAPTER  XV 
OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS 

WE  do  not  know  of  any  other  books  which  deserve  to  be 
classed  with  the  two  we  have  been  considering  in  their  relation 
to  the  formation  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  ideas;  but  our 
inquiry  is  at  a  point  where  it  will  be  instructive  to  learn  of  any 
collateral  influence  which  at  this  period,  the  period  of  the  50*5, 
after  the  death  of  Eddie,  and  before  his  election  as  President, 
helped  to  give  shape  to  his  convictions. 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  unite  with  Dr.  Smith's  church.  It  is 
difficult  to  think  that  it  would  have  been  possible  for  him  to 
have  done  so.  Old-school  Calvinism  had  its  permanent  in 
fluence  upon  him  through  his  Baptist  antecedents,  but  while 
that  of  Dr.  Smith  came  to  him  most  opportunely,  it  did  not 
wholly  meet  his  spiritual  requirements. 

For  many  years  Herndon  was  in  regular  correspondence 
with  Theodore  Parker.  They  agreed  in  their  view  of  the 
slavery  question,  and  had  much  in  common  in  their  religion. 
Herndon  had  Parker's  theological  books,  and  Lincoln  read 
them,  not  very  thoroughly,  perhaps,  but  with  interest. 

About  the  same  time,  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Fell,  for  whom  he 
wrote  the  first  sketch  of  his  life,  presented  him  with  the  works 
of  William  E.  Channing. 

When  Herndon  was  gathering  material  to  confute  Dr. 
Reed,  he  assembled  very  nearly  everything  that  seemed  to 
prove  that  Lincoln  was  not  orthodox,  however  far  short  it  fell 
of  proving  him  an  infidel.  Among  the  rest  he  interviewed 
Fell,  and  from  his  statements  made  up  this  report,  which  ap 
peared  in  Lamon's  book,  and  subsequently  in  Herndon' s : 

"  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Fell  of  Illinois,  who  had  the  best  oppor 
tunities  of  knowing  Mr.  Lincoln  intimately,  makes  the  follow- 

172 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          173 

ing  statement  of  his  religious  opinions,  derived  from  repeated 
conversations  with  him  on  the  subject : 

"  '  Though  everything  relating  to  the  character  and  history 
of  this  extraordinary  personage  is  of  interest,  and  should  be 
fairly  stated  to  the  world,  I  enter  upon  the  performance  of  this 
duty — for  so  I  regard  it — with  some  reluctance,  arising  from 
the  fact,  that,  in  stating  my  convictions  on  the  subject,  I  must 
necessarily  place  myself  in  opposition  to  quite  a  number  who 
have  written  on  this  topic  before  me,  and  whose  views  largely 
preoccupy  the  public  mind.  This  latter  fact,  whilst  contribut 
ing  to  my  embarrassment  on  this  subject,  is,  perhaps,  the 
strongest  reason,  however,  why  the  truth  in  this  matter  should 
be  fully  disclosed;  and  I  therefore  yield  to  your  request.  If 
there  were  any  traits  of  character  that  stood  out  in  bold  relief 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  they  were  those  of  truth  and 
candor.  He  was  utterly  incapable  of  insincerity,  or  profess 
ing  views  on  this  or  any  other  subject  he  did  not  entertain. 
Knowing  such  to  be  his  true  character,  that  insincerity,  much 
more  duplicity,  were  traits  wholly  foreign  to  his  nature,  many 
of  his  old  friends  were  not  a  little  surprised  at  finding,  in 
some  of  the  biographies  of  this  great  man,  statements  concern 
ing  his  religious  opinions  so  utterly  at  variance  with  his  known 
sentiments.  True,  he  may  have  changed  or  modified  those 
sentiments  after  his  removal  from  among  us,  though  this  is 
hardly  reconcilable  with  the  history  of  the  man,  and  his  entire 
devotion  to  public  matters  during  his  four  years'  residence  at 
the  national  capital.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  this  may 
be  the  proper  solution  of  this  conflict  of  opinions ;  or,  it  may 
be,  that,  with  no  intention  on  the  part  of  anyone  to  mislead  the 
public  mind,  those  who  have  represented  him  as  believing  in 
the  popular  theological  views  of  the  times  may  have  mis 
apprehended  him,  as  experience  shows  to  be  quite  common 
where  no  special  effort  has  been  made  to  attain  critical  ac 
curacy  on  a  subject  of  this  nature.  This  is  the  more  probable 
from  the  well-known  fact,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom  communi 
cated  to  anyone  his  views  on  this  subject.  But,  be  this  as  it 
may,  I  have  no  hesitation  whatever  in  saying,  that,  whilst  he 
held  many  opinions  in  common  with  the  great  mass  of  Chris 
tian  believers,  he  did  not  believe  in  what  are  regarded  as  the 
orthodox  or  evangelical  views  of  Christianity. 


174,    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  *  On  the  innate  depravity  of  man,  the  character  and 
office  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  the  atonement,  the 
infallibility  of  the  written  revelation,  the  performance  of 
miracles,  the  nature  and  design  of  present  and  future  rewards 
and  punishments  (as  they  are  probably  called),  and  many  other 
subjects,  he  held  opinions  utterly  at  variance  with  what  are 
usually  taught  in  the  church.  I  should  say  that  his  expressed 
views  on  these  and  kindred  topics  were  such  as,  in  the  esti 
mation  of  most  believers,  would  place  him  entirely  outside  the 
Christian  pale.  Yet,  to  my  mind,  such  was  not  the  true  posi 
tion,  since  his  principles  and  practices  and  the  spirit  of  his 
whole  life  were  of  the  very  kind  we  universally  agree  to  call 
Christian;  and  I  think  this  conclusion  is  in  no  wise  affected 
by  the  circumstance  that  he  never  attached  himself  to  any 
religious  society  whatever. 

"  '  His  religious  views  were  eminently  practical,  and  are 
summed  up,  as  I  think,  in  these  two  propositions :  "  the  Father 
hood  of  God,  and  the  brotherhood  of  man."  He  fully  believed 
in  a  superintending  and  overruling  Providence,  that  guides  and 
controls  the  operations  of  the  world,  but  maintained  that  law 
and  order,  and  not  the  violation  or  suspension,  are  the  ap 
pointed  means  by  which  this  providence  is  expressed. 

"  '  I  will  not  attempt  any  specification  of  either  his  belief  or 
disbelief  on  various  religious  topics,  as  derived  from  conversa 
tions  with  him  at  different  times  during  a  considerable  period ; 
but,  as  conveying  a  general  view  of  his  religious  or  theological 
opinions,  will  state  the  following  facts.  Some  eight  or  ten 
years  prior  to  his  death,  in  conversing  with  him  upon  this 
subject,  the  writer  took  occasion  to  refer,  in  terms  of  appro 
bation,  to  the  sermons  and  writings  generally  of  Dr.  W.  E. 
Channing;  and,  finding  he  was  considerably  interested  in  the 
statement  I  made  of  the  opinions  held  by  that  author,  I  pro 
posed  to  present  him  [Lincoln]  a  copy  of  Channing's  entire 
works,  which  I  soon  after  did.  Subsequently,  the  contents  of 
these  volumes,  together  with  the  writings  of  Theodore  Parker, 
furnished  him,  as  he  informed  me,  by  his  friend  and  law  part 
ner,  Mr.  Herndon,  became  naturally  the  topics  of  conversation 
with  us;  and  though  far  from  believing  there  was  an  entire 
harmony  of  views  on  his  part  with  either  of  those  authors,  yet 
they  were  generally  much  admired  and  approved  by  him. 

1  No  religious  views  with  him  seemed  to  find  any  favor, 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          175 

except  of  the  practical  and  rationalistic  order;  and  if,  from 
my  recollections  on  this  subject,  I  was  called  upon  to  designate 
an  author  whose  views  most  nearly  represented  Mr.  Lincoln's 
on  this  subject,  I  would  say  that  author  was  Theodore  Parker. 

"  *  As  you  have  asked  from  me  a  candid  statement  of  my 
recollections  on  this  topic,  I  have  thus  briefly  given  them, 
with  the  hope  that  they  may  be  of  some  service  in  rightly 
settling  a  question  about  which — as  I  have  good  reason  to  be 
lieve — the  public  mind  has  been  greatly  misled. 

" '  Not  doubting  that  they  will  accord,  substantially,  with 
your  own  recollections,  and  that  of  his  other  intimate  and 
confidential  friends,  and  with  the  popular  verdict  after  this 
matter  shall  have  been  properly  canvassed,  I  submit  them.'  " — 
LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  pp.  490,  491,  492. 

Herndon  was  attempting  to  collect  evidence  that  Lincoln 
was  an  infidel,  and  what  he  obtained,  and  what  essentially  he 
was  called  to  certify  and  did  certify  in  effect,  was  that  Lincoln's 
views  were  in  essential  accord  with  those  of  Theodore  Parker 
and  William  Ellery  Channing.  Theodore  Parker  was  not  an 
orthodox  Christian  according  to  the  standards  of  Dr.  Smith's 
church,  or  of  the  church  of  which  the  present  writer  is  pastor, 
but  he  was  a  Christian,  and  a  very  brave  and  noble  Christian. 
William  Ellery  Channing's  views  were  not  in  full  accord  with 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  day,  but  he  was  a  noble  friend  of  God 
and  man,  and  a  true  Christian. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  very  loose  and  inexact  way 
in  which  Herndon  and  others  use  the  term  "  infidel"  as  applied 
to  Lincoln.  Such  inexactness  is  subversive  of  all  clear 
thinking. 

We  are  told,  for  instance,  that  he  was  an  infidel,  his  views 
being  essentially  those  of  Theodore  Parker  and  William  Ellery 
Channing.  I  doubt  if  he  ever  read  very  deeply  in  the  writings 
of  these  men;  but  that  he  read  portions  of  them  and  approved 
of  some  of  their  noblest  and  most  characteristic  utterances,  is 
certain.  What  were  the  discourses  of  these  two  men  which 
he  must  almost  certainly  have  read  if  he  read  anything  of 
theirs?  He  would  almost  certainly  have  read  Parker's  dis 
course  on  "  The  Transient  and  Permanent  in  Christianity," 


176    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

and  that  on  "  Immortal  Life,"  and  Channing's  Baltimore  ad 
dress  and  his  discourse  on  the  Church.  And  these  are  just  the 
sort  of  utterances  which  he  would  have  read  with  approval 
as  he  found  them  in  these  discourses  of  Theodore  Parker : 

"  Compare  the  simpleness  of  Christianity,  as  Christ  sets  it 
forth  on  the  Mount,  with  what  is  sometimes  taught  and  ac 
cepted  in  that  honored  name,  and  what  a  difference !  One  is 
of  God,  one  is  of  man.  There  is  something  in  Christianity 
which  sects  have  not  reached, — something  that  will  not  be 
won,  we  fear,  by  theological  battles,  or  the  quarrels  of  pious 
men;  still  we  may  rejoice  that  Christ  is  preached  in  any  way. 
The  Christianity  of  sects,  of  the  pulpit,  of  society,  is  ephem 
eral, — a  transitory  fly.  It  will  pass  off  and  be  forgot.  Some 
new  form  will  take  its  place,  suited  to  the  aspect  of  the  chang 
ing  times.  Each  will  represent  something  of  truth,  but  no  one 
the  whole.  It  seems  the  whole  race  of  man  is  needed  to  do 
justice  to  the  whole  of  truth,  as  '  the  whole  church  to  preach 
the  whole  gospel/  Truth  is  intrusted  for  the  time  to  a  perish 
able  ark  of  human  contrivance.  Though  often  shipwrecked, 
she  always  comes  safe  to  land,  and  is  not  changed  by  her  mis 
hap.  That  pure  ideal  religion  which  Jesus  saw  on  the  mount 
of  his  vision,  and  lived  out  in  the  lowly  life  of  a  Galilean 
peasant;  which  transforms  his  cross  into  an  emblem  of  all 
that  is  holiest  on  earth;  which  makes  sacred  the  ground  he 
trod,  and  is  dearest  to  the  best  of  men,  most  true  to  what  is 
truest  in  them,— cannot  pass  away.  Let  men  improve  never  so 
far  in  civilization,  or  soar  never  so  high  on  the  wings  of  re 
ligion  and  love,  they  can  never  outgo  the  flight  of  truth  and 
Christianity.  It  will  always  be  above  them.  It  is  as  if  we 
were  to  fly  towards  a  star,  which  becomes  larger  and  more 
bright  the  nearer  we  approach,  till  we  enter  and  are  absorbed 
in  its  glory." — THEODORE  PARKER:  The  Transient  and  Per 
manent  in  Christianity,  p.  3 1 . 

"  I  would  not  slight  this  wondrous  world.  I  love  its  day 
and  night :  its  flowers  and  its  fruits  are  dear  to  me.  I  would 
not  willfully  lose  sight  of  a  departing  cloud.  Every  year  opens 
new  beauty  in  a  star,  or  in  a  purple  gentian  fringed  with  love 
liness.  The  laws,  too,  of  matter  seem  more  wonderful,  the 
more  I  study  them,  in  the  whirling  eddies  of  the  dust,  in  the 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          177 

curious  shells  of  former  life  buried  by  thousands  in  a  grain 
of  chalk,  or  in  the  shining  diagrams  of  light  above  my  head. 
Even  the  ugly  becomes  beautiful  when  truly  seen.  I  see  the 
jewel  in  the  bunchy  toad.  The  more  I  live,  the  more  I  love 
this  lovely  world, — feel  more  its  Author  in  each  little  thing,  in 
all  that  is  great.  But  yet  I  feel  my  immortality  the  more.  In 
childhood  the  consciousness  of  immortal  life  buds  forth  feeble, 
though  full  of  promise.  In  the  man  it  unfolds  its  fragrant 
petals,  his  most  celestial  flower,  to  mature  its  seed  throughout 
eternity.  The  prospect  of  that  everlasting  life,  the  perfect 
justice  yet  to  come,  the  infinite  progress  before  us,  cheer 
and  comfort  the  heart.  Sad  and  disappointed,  full  of  self- 
reproach,  we  shall  not  be  so  forever.  The  light  of  heaven 
breaks  upon  the  night  of  trial,  sorrow,  sin :  the  somber  clouds 
which  overhung  the  east,  grown  purple  now,  tell  us  the  dawn 
of  heaven  is  coming  in.  Our  faces,  gleamed  on  by  that,  smile 
in  the  new-born  glow.  We  are  beguiled  of  our  sadness  before 
we  are  aware.  The  certainty  of  this  provokes  us  to  patience, 
it  forbids  us  to  be  slothfully  sorrowful.  It  calls  us  to  be  up 
and  doing.  The  thought  that  all  will  at  last  be  right  with 
the  slave,  the  poor,  the  weak,  and  the  wicked,  inspires  us  with 
zeal  to  work  for  them  here,  and  make  it  all  right  for  them 
even  now." — THEODORE  PARKER  :  Immortality,  pp.  23-24. 

It  is  affirmed  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  believing  essen 
tially  the  same  as  Theodore  Parker :  and  he  himself  expressed 
such  admiration  for  and  accord  with  the  utterances  of  Parker 
which  he  knew  that  the  statement  is  partly  true.  These  two 
quotations,  from  two  of  the  most  easily  accessible  of  Parker's 
discourses,  represent  the  kind  of  teaching  which  Lincoln  as 
similated  from  Theodore  Parker  and  show  us  what  kind  of 
infidelity  Lincoln  learned  from  him. 

When  Lincoln  turned  to  the  most  widely  circulated  of 
Channing's  discourses,  he  read  such  utterances  as  these : 

"  We  regard  the  Scriptures  as  the  records  of  God's  suc 
cessive  revelations  to  mankind,  and  particularly  of  the  last  and 
most  perfect  revelation  of  His  will  by  Jesus  Christ.  Whatever 
doctrines  seem  to  us  to  be  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  we 
receive  without  reserve  or  exception.  We  do  not,  however, 


178    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

attach  equal  importance  to  all  the  books  in  this  collection. 

"  Our  leading  principle  in  interpreting  Scripture  is  this, 
that  the  Bible  is  a  book  written  for  men,  in  the  language  of 
men,  and  that  its  meaning  is  to  be  sought  in  the  same  manner 
as  that  of  other  books.  We  believe  that  God,  when  He  speaks 
to  the  human  race,  conforms,  if  we  may  so  say,  to  the  estab 
lished  rules  of  speaking  and  writing.  How  else  would  the 
Scriptures  avail  us  more  than  if  communicated  in  an  unknown 
tongue  ? 

"If  God  be  infinitely  wise,  He  cannot  sport  with  the  under 
standings  of  His  creatures.  A  wise  teacher  discovers  his  wis 
dom  in  adapting  himself  to  the  capacities  of  his  pupils,  not 
in  perplexing  them  with  what  is  unintelligible,  not  in  distress 
ing  them  with  apparent  contradictions,  not  in  filling  them  with 
a  skeptical  distrust  of  their  own  powers.  An  infinitely  wise 
teacher,  who  knows  the  precise  extent  of  our  minds,  and  the 
best  method  of  enlightening  them,  will  surpass  all  other  in 
structors  in  bringing  down  truth  to  our  apprehension,  and  in 
showing  its  loveliness  and  harmony.  We  ought,  indeed,  to 
expect  occasional  obscurity  in  such  a  book  as  the  Bible,  which 
was  written  for  past  and  future  ages,  as  well  as  for  the  present. 
But  God's  wisdom  is  a  pledge,  that  whatever  is  necessary  for 
us,  and  necessary  for  salvation,  is  revealed  too  plainly  to  be 
mistaken,  and  too  consistently  to  be  questioned,  by  a  sound 
and  upright  mind.  It  is  not  the  mark  of  wisdom  to  use  an 
unintelligible  phraseology,  to  communicate  what  is  above  our 
capacities,  to  confuse  and  unsettle  the  intellect  by  appearances 
of  contradiction.  We  honor  our  heavenly  teacher  too  much 
to  ascribe  to  Him  such  a  revelation.  A  revelation  is  a  gift  of 
light.  It  cannot  thicken  our  darkness,  and  multiply  our  per 
plexities. 

"  We  believe,  too,  that  God  is  just ;  but  we  never  forget 
that  His  justice  is  the  justice  of  a  good  being,  dwelling  in  the 
same  mind,  and  acting  in  harmony  with  perfect  benevolence. 
By  this  attribute,  we  understand  God's  infinite  regard  to 
virtue  or  moral  worth,  expressed  in  a  moral  government ;  that 
is,  in  giving  excellent  and  equitable  laws,  and  in  conferring 
such  rewards  and  inflicting  such  punishments,  as  are  best  fitted 
to  secure  their  observance.  God's  justice  has  for  its  end  the 
highest  virtue  of  the  creation,  and  it  punishes  for  this  end 
alone,  and  thus  it  coincides  with  benevolence;  for  virtue  and 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          179 

happiness,  though  not  the  same,  are  inseparably  conjoined. 
"  God's  justice,  thus  viewed,  appears  to  us  to  be  in  perfect 
harmony  with  His  mercy.  According  to  the  prevalent  systems 
of  theology,  these  attributes  are  so  discordant  and  jarring,  that 
to  reconcile  them  is  the  hardest  task,  and  the  most  wonderful 
achievement,  of  infinite  wisdom.  To  us  they  seem  to  be 
intimate  friends,  always  at  peace,  breathing  the  same  spirit, 
and  seeking  the  same  end.  By  God's  mercy,  we  understand 
not  a  blind,  instinctive  compassion,  which  forgives  without  re 
flection,  and  without  regard  to  the  interests  of  virtue.  This, 
we  acknowledge,  would  be  incompatible  with  justice,  and  also 
with  enlightened  benevolence.  God's  mercy,  as  we  understand 
it,  desires  strongly  the  happiness  of  the  guilty,  but  only  through 
their  penitence." — W.  E.  CHANNING  :  Baltimore  Discourse  of 
1819,  Passim. 

"  Inward  sanctity,  pure  love,  disinterested  attachment  to 
God  and  man,  obedience  of  heart  and  life,  sincere  excellence  of 
character,  this  is  the  one  thing  needful,  this  the  essential  thing 
in  religion ;  and  all  things  else,  ministers,  churches,  ordinances, 
places  of  worship,  all  are  but  means,  helps,  secondary  in 
fluences,  and  utterly  worthless  when  separated  from  this.  To 
imagine  that  God  regards  any  thing  but  this,  that  He  looks  at 
any  thing  but  the  heart,  is  to  dishonor  Him,  to  express  a 
mournful  insensibility  to  His  pure  character.  Goodness,  purity, 
virtue,  this  is  the  only  distinction  in  God's  sight.  This  is 
intrinsically,  essentially,  everlastingly,  and  by  its  own  nature, 
lovely,  beautiful,  glorious,  divine.  It  owes  nothing  to  time,  to 
circumstance  to  outward  connections.  It  shines  by  its  own 
light.  It  is  the  sun  of  the  spiritual  universe.  It  is  God  himself 
dwelling  in  the  human  soul.  Can  any  man  think  lightly  of  it, 
because  it  has  not  grown  up  in  a  certain  church,  or  exalt  any 
church  above  it?  My  friends,  one  of  the  grandest  truths  of 
religion  is  the  supreme  importance  of  character,  of  virtue,  of 
that  divine  spirit  which  shone  out  in  Christ.  The  grand  heresy 
is,  to  substitute  any  thing  for  this,  whether  creed,  or  form,  or 
church." — W.  E.  CHANNING:  Discourse  on  the  Church, 
pp.  23-24. 

If  Lincoln  was  made  an  infidel  or  confirmed  in  his  infidelity 
by  his  reading  of  William  Ellery  Channing,  the  foregoing  is  a 


180    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

reasonable  sample  of  the  quality  of  his  infidelity :  for  these  are 
not  only  characteristic  utterances  of  Channing:  they  are  among 
the  utterances  which  Lincoln  was  most  certain  to  have  had 
thrust  into  his  hand,  and  most  likely  to  have  read  and  to  have 
approved. 

The  author  of  this  work  is  not  a  Unitarian,  and  he  is 
ready,  on  any  proper  occasion,  to  define  to  anyone  who  has  a 
right  to  know,  his  own  opinions  in  contradistinction  from  those 
of  the  Unitarian  churches.  But  his  loyalty  to  his  own  convic 
tions  lays  upon  him  no  obligation  to  be  unfair  to  men  who  hold 
opinions  other  than  his  own.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  it  is  Mr. 
Herndon,  and  not  some  bigoted  exponent  of  orthodoxy,  who 
calls  Thedore  Parker  an  infidel.  The  present  writer  holds  no 
such  opinion  of  Parker,  nor  yet  of  Channing.  On  the  con 
trary,  he  is  of  opinion  that  their  writings  were  beneficial  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  as  helping  him  to  define  some  of  his  own 
views  constructively  and  reverently.  While  Beecher  or  Bush- 
nell  might  have  done  it  as  well  or  better,  it  was  not  their  books 
which  Jesse  Fell  gave  to  Lincoln;  and  Lincoln  used  what  he 
had.  To  say  that  Lincoln's  views  were  like  those  of  Parker 
or  Channing  is  to  affirm  that  Lincoln  was  not  an  infidel,  but  a 
Christian. 

Was  Lincoln,  then,  a  Unitarian? 

No.  Of  Unitarianism  he  knew  nothing,  so  far  as  we  are 
informed.  He  knew  the  views  of  certain  Unitarians,  and  these 
assisted  him  at  important  points  in  defining  certain  aspects  of 
his  faith. 

There  have  been  rumors  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  come  into 
actual  contact  with  organized  Unitarianism.  I  have  been  inter 
ested  in  inquiring  whether  this  was  true.  During  the  Billy 
Sunday  meetings  in  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  in  1916,  the  Uni 
tarians  opened  a  booth  there  for  the  distribution  of  their  litera 
ture,  and  there  were  certain  communications  in  the  local  press 
resulting  from  the  counter-irritation  of  those  meetings. 
Among  these  was  one  in  the  Paterson  Guardian,  signed 
"  Once-in-Awhile."  It  said : 

"  The  following  is,  in  part,  a  sketch  of  my  own  youthful 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          181 

experience,  together  with  a  statement  of  facts  that  relate  to 
others  who  long  since  have  passed  on 

"  In  1851-52  the  Chicago  &  Alton  Railroad  was  being  built, 
and  I  was  employed  on  a  section  of  the  work  at  that  time. 
Our  section  extended  from  Springfield,  Illinois,  to  a  little  town 
called  Chatham,  situated  near  the  Sangamon  River,  a  distance 
of  about  ten  miles  south  from  Springfield.  The  majority  of 
the  people  who  had  located  in  that  part  of  the  country  at  that 
time  were  from  the  central  part  of  New  York  State,  and 
among  them  was  Elder  Shipman,  a  Unitarian.  He  was  a  very 
able  preacher  and  *  made  good  '  with  all  who  knew  him  in  the 
Sangamon  country.  It  was  not  long  before  he  received  a  call 
to  preach  in  Springfield.  The  little  Unitarian  church  there  was 
located  just  around  the  corner  from  Capitol  Square.  When 
Elder  Shipman  was  permanently  located  there,  Abraham  Lin 
coln  became  a  regular  and  seemingly  much  interested  attendant. 
Nearly  all  of  the  boys  in  our  '  gang '  had  known  Elder  Ship 
man  way  back  in  New  York  State,  and,  there  being  no  ball 
games  or  other  amusements  save  an  occasional  horse  race, 
almost  every  Sunday  all  hands  would  saddle  horses  and  gallop 
to  Springfield  to  attend  the  services  conducted  there  by  our 
old-time  pastor.  At  the  close  of  the  regular  service  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  often  called  upon  for  a  few  remarks,  and  many  of 
his  sayings  are  still  fresh  in  my  mind  today,  although  that  was 
sixty-three  years  ago.  Since  then,  in  the  quiet  hours  that  have 
passed,  I  often  find  myself  looking  back  through  the  mist  of 
vanished  years  and  fancy  I  feel  the  grip  of  his  great,  bony 
hand  in  mine,  or  rather  mine  in  his,  and  hear  his  kindly  voice 
saying,  '  Boys,  good-by,  come  again.  Come  often ! ' 

"  I  am  not  saying  that  Mr.  Lincoln  subscribed  to  the  Uni 
tarian  articles  of  faith,  but  I  have  good  and  sufficient  reason 
to  believe  that  he  did,  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  proof  is 
wanting  that  he  ever  subscribed  to  faith  in  articles  of  any 
other  religious  denomination." 

I  challenged  the  veracity  of  this  letter,  reprinting  it  in  The 
Advance,  of  which  I  was  editor,  and  asking  these  questions : 

1.  Who  is  Mr.  Once-in- Awhile,  and  why  does  he  not  sign 
his  real  name? 

2.  How  does  it  happen  that  no  one  else  of  those  who  at- 


182     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tended  the  alleged  Unitarian  church  in  Springfield  in  the  days 
when  Lincoln  is  supposed  to  have  been  there  has  risen  up  to 
tell  this  story  some  time  during  the  last  half  century;  and  why 
does  it  come  to  us  from  Paterson  and  not  from  Springfield  ? 

3.  Who  is  this  Elder  Shipman  concerning  whom  this  letter 
tells  us?     We  are  informed  that  the  Unitarian  Year  Book 
shows  no  such  man. 

4.  Where  was  this  Unitarian  church  "  just  around  the 
corner  from  Capitol  Square  "  ?     Around  which  corner,  and 
what  became  of  it  ? 

We  are  informed  that  there  was  no  Unitarian  church  in 
Springfield  sixty-three  years  ago.  We  were  not  there  and  do 
not  know :  but  if  one  was  there,  where  was  it?  When  was  it 
organized?  Who  were  its  ministers? 

5.  With  so  popular  a  preacher  as  Mr.  Shipman  appears  to 
have  been,  is  it  altogether  likely  that  he  would  have  made  the 
habit  of  calling  upon  a  layman  who  attended  his  church  to 
speak  at  the  close  of  the  service  ? 

6.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  this  Uni 
tarian  church,  how  did  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Springfield 
get  the  impression  that  Mr.  Lincoln  attended  there  with  his 
wife,  and  why  did  he  continue  to  attend  the  Presbyterian 
church  after  he  went  to  Washington  ? 

7.  Lincoln  is  known  to  have  said  that  if  he  knew  any 
church  whose  only  creed  was  the  command  of  Jesus  to  love 
God  with  all  one's  heart  and  his  neighbor  as  himself,  he  would 
join  that  church,  and  Unitarians  have  frequently  declared  that 
if  Mr.  Lincoln  had  ever  come  into  contact  with  the  Unitarian 
Church  he  must  on  the  basis  of  that  declaration  have  united 
with  it.    We  are  not  clear  if  their  inference  is  correct,  but  we 
are  clear  that  there  has  been  a  very  general  impression  among 
Unitarians  that  he  was  not  familiar  with  that  church  and 
creed. 

We  do  not  call  in  question  the  veracity  of  Mr.  Once-in- 
Awhile,  whoever  he  may  be.  We  merely  do  what  we  have 
done  before,  we  ask  for  one  or  two  facts.  If  anybody  knows 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  habitually  attended  a  Unitarian  church 
and  frequently  participated  in  its  public  service  by  speaking 
at  the  close  of  the  sermon,  let  him  now  speak  or  else  forever 
hold  his  peace. 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          183 

Everybody  held  his  peace,  including  Mr.  Once-in- Awhile ! 

Such  stories  are  rarely  made  out  of  whole  cloth.  I  there 
fore  inquired  of  the  Christian  Register  (Unitarian)  and  the 
Christian  Leader  (Universalist)  to  learn  if  they  knew  any 
basis  of  truth  in  the  above  statement,  and  they  did  not  know 
and  were  not  able  to  learn  anything  accurate  about  it.  How 
ever,  there  came  to  me  in  the  course  of  the  inquiry,  which  was 
of  necessity  not  very  thorough  for  lack  of  anything  definite 
to  begin  with,  an  impression,  based  on  information  too  vague 
to  be  cited,  that  there  was  a  Mr.  Shipman,  a  Universalist 
rather  than  a  Unitarian,  whose  occasional  services  in  Spring 
field  Mr.  Lincoln  attended  once  or  more  and  enjoyed.  But 
this  came  to  me  very  vaguely,  and  may  be  far  from  the  truth. 

Whether  there  be  a  ten  per  cent,  modicum  of  fact  at  the 
root  of  the  above  letter  I  will  not  attempt  to  guess,  for  my  own 
information  is  too  meager.  The  picture,  as  a  whole,  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  preaching  Unitarianism  from  a  Unitarian  pulpit,  and 
at  the  close  assuming  charge  of  the  service  of  farewell  and 
exhorting  the  railroad  hands  to  come  again  is  too  far  from 
the  possible  truth  to  require  very  close  analysis. 

The  Unitarian  books  which  Mr.  Lincoln  read  cursorily, 
the  books  by  Parker  and  Channing,  must  have  assisted  him  in 
this,  that  they  gave  assurance  that  there  were  forward-looking 
men  who  believed  in  God  and  in  human  freedom  as  he  did, 
and  who  were  quite  as  far  from  holding  the  teaching  which 
he  had  been  taught  to  call  orthodox  as  he  was,  yet  who  were 
not  infidels,  but  counted  themselves  friends  of  God  and  dis 
ciples  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Herndon  asserts  that  Lincoln  habitually  spoke  in  his  pres 
ence  in  terms  of  denial  of  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus.  On 
this  point  I  have  seen  but  one  bit  of  documentary  evidence,  and 
that  of  unique  interest,  in  two  words  written  in  a  book  that 
once  belonged  to  Lincoln.  The  book  is  entitled  Exercises  in 
the  Syntax  of  the  Greek  Language,  by  Rev.  William  Nielson, 
D.D.,  and  contains  two  appendixes  by  Prof.  Charles  Anthon, 
noted  as  a  Greek  scholar  and  the  author  of  a  Greek  Grammar 
and  other  textbooks.  It  was  published  by  T.  &  J.  Swords  in 


184     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

New  York,  in  1825.  At  the  bottom  of  page  34  is  a  sentence, 
shortened  and  modified  from  John  16 : 27,  and  printed  in 
parallel  Greek  and  English, — 

"  Ye  have  loved  me,  and 
have  believed  that  I  came  forth 
from  God." 

The  words  "  from  God  "  are  erased  with  pen,  and  the 
words,  "  from  nature  "  substituted,  apparently  in  the  hand 
writing  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  This,  if  its  genuineness  be  established, 
would  appear  to  be  conclusive  that  at  the  time  Lincoln  owned 
this  book  he  denied  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus. 

The  book  was  formerly  a  part  of  the  noted  collection  of 
Mr.  John  E.  Burton,  procured  by  him  from  the  collection  of 
Dr.  J.  B.  English,  and  was  retained  by  Mr.  Burton  with  other 
unique  items  when  his  large  collection  was  broken  up  some 
years  ago.  I  was  privileged  to  examine  the  book  by  A.  C. 
McClurg  &  Co.,  in  April,  1919;  the  book  being  then  and 
possibly  still  owned  by  them. 

That  the  book  was  once  owned  by  Lincoln  would  appear 
certain.  His  signature  on  the  flyleaf  is  in  his  firm,  mature 
hand,  written  as  he  was  accustomed  to  write  it  until  some 
time  after  he  became  President,  "  A.  Lincoln."  The  owner 
ship  would  appear  to  be  still  further  attested  by  an  inscription 
on  the  inside  of  the  front  cover,  "  Compliments  to  Master 
Abe  Lincoln,  and  good  success,  truly  yours,  Charles  Anthon, 
Columbia  College."  But  this  inscription  raises  more  questions 
than  it  answers.  I  am  not  familiar  with  the  handwriting  of 
Professor  Anthon,  but  I  am  disposed  to  question  the  genuine 
ness  of  this  inscription.  That  it  has  been  received  as  genuine 
by  previous  owners  of  the  book  is  attested  by  the  fact  that 
another  hand  has  written  before  "Columbia  College"  the 
words  "  A  Prof."  evidently  that  Professor  Anthon  might  be 
properly  introduced  to  persons  who  did  not  know  him.  Pro 
fessor  Anthon  was  a  noted  classical  scholar,  but  I  cannot  help 
wondering  at  what  period  of  his  career  he  could  have  come 
into  personal  touch  with  Abraham  Lincoln.  Not,  certainly,  in 
1825,  when  the  book  was  published,  and  when  Lincoln  was 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          185 

sixteen  years  old.    And  at  what  later  period  would  Professor 
Anthon  have  addressed  him  as  "  Master  Abe  Lincoln  "  ? 

If  Anthon  came  to  know  Lincoln  personally  so  as  to  care 
to  present  him  with  one  of  his  books,  it  would  seem  as  if  he 
would  have  given  him  a  book  of  which  he  was  the  sole  or  chief 
author,  and  not  one  in  which  his  part  was  confined  to  the 
appendix.  Anthon's  interest  in  the  Greek  was  primarily  classi 
cal,  and  that  of  the  author  of  this  work  was  primarily  Biblical. 
If  Anthon  came  to  know  Lincoln  it  would  probably  have  been 
after  Lincoln  had  become  a  national  figure,  say  in  1848  or 
some  later  year,  by  which  time  a  book  issued  in  1825  would 
have  become  an  old  story  to  an  author  engaged  in  publishing 
new  books. 

Let  me,  then,  in  the  absence  of  direct  evidence,  venture  the 
hypothesis  that  the  book  was  really  owned  by  Lincoln;  that  it 
came  into  his  possession  not  earlier  than  the  time  when,  having 
mastered  Kirkham's  Grammar,  he  welcomed  the  ownership 
of  a  book  which  suggested  the  possible  knowledge  of  a  classi 
cal  tongue.  That  he  bought  the  book  is  hardly  probable ;  that 
it  was  the  gift  of  Professor  Anthon  is  improbable,  because 
there  would  appear  to  have  been  no  contact  between  the  two  at 
a  period  when  such  a  gift  would  have  been  appropriate :  let  us 
assume,  then,  that  someone  else  gave  him  the  book,  and  that 
the  attribution  to  Professor  Anthon  is  the  conjectural  record 
of  a  later  owner.1 

The  book  might  conceivably  have  come  into  Lincoln's  pos 
session  through  the  Green  boys,  or  the  brother  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge,  returning  from  Illinois  College  to  New  Salem;  for  it 
was  a  book  which  might  easily  have  been  floating  around  Jack 
sonville,  and  picked  up  by  a  student  there,  and  later  discarded 
because  he  had  no  special  interest  in  the  Greek  of  the  New  Tes 
tament.  Lincoln  would  have  been  more  likely  to  feel  a  passing 
interest  in  it  then  than  at  any  other  period  of  his  career, 
for  he  was  widening  his  educational  horizon,  and  had  not  as 

1 1  have  communicated  with  Mr.  Burton  and  he  agrees  with  me  in 
the  opinion  that  the  inscription  from  Professor  Anthon  is  not  genuine. 
He  thinks  it  may  have  been  added  by  Dr.  English,  not  with  intent  to 
deceive,  but  as  giving  his  impression  of  the  manner  in  which  Lincoln 
acquired  the  book.  Whoever  wrote  it  I  think  was  in  error. 


186     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

yet  set  any  limits  to  his  learning  in  one  or  another  direction. 
He  might  have  picked  it  up,  or  it  might  have  been  handed  him 
by  some  minister,  during  his  early  years  in  Springfield;  but 
by  that  time  Lincoln  must  have  given  up  any  passing  notion 
that  he  might  ever  learn  Greek.  He  could  hardly  have  pro 
cured  it  and  would  not  have  cared  for  it  before  he  lived  in 
New  Salem :  he  must  have  ceased  to  think  of  the  possibility  o'f 
learning  Greek  before  he  had  lived  long  in  Springfield. 

I  assume,  also,  that  the  erasure  of  the  words  "  from  God  " 
and  the  substitution  of  the  words  "  from  nature  "  is  in  Lin 
coln's  hand;  though  the  two  words  are  written  at  the  very 
bottom  of  the  page,  with  no  support  for  the  hand,  and  are 
not  as  well  written  as  the  signature,  and  their  authenticity 
might  be  questioned.  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  he  wrote 
it,  and  this,  evidently,  was  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Burton,  as  indi 
cated  by  a  note  in  the  book  in  his  handwriting. 

It  might  be  mentioned  in  passing  that  the  word  "  God  "  is 
not  in  this  verse  in  the  New  Testament,  either  Greek  or  Eng 
lish.  It  reads,  "  Ye  have  loved  me,  and  have  believed  that  I 
came  forth  from  the  Father."  Perhaps  if  Dr.  Nielson  had 
followed  the  text  literally,  Lincoln  would  not  have  troubled  to 
amend  it. 

I  accept  it  as  a  genuine  document,  and  one  of  real  interest; 
but  the  lack  of  a  date  makes  it  almost  valueless  as  proof  of 
Lincoln's  settled  belief.  I  place  it,  conjecturally,  in  the  New 
Salem  period  of  his  life,  though  it  may  date  from  the  begin 
ning  of  his  life  in  Springfield. 

I  have  not  read  the  entire  book,  nor  compared  the  Greek 
throughout  with  the  English,  but  I  note  that  in  this  passage 
the  English  is  not  translated  from  the  Greek,  but  the  Greek  is 
translated  backward  from  the  English,  and  that  inexactly. 
I  judge  this  to  be  not  the  effect  of  bad  scholarship  but  the 
result  of  a  desire  to  convey  a  lesson.  For  instance,  the  Greek 
of  this  passage  is  made  into  a  personal  confession  by  the 
change  of  person  in  the  first  part  of  the  verse,  without  cor 
responding  change  in  the  second  part,  leaving  the  first  verb 
without  a  direct  object,  so  that  a  literal  translation  reads, — 

"  I  love  and  believe  that  I  came  forth  from  God." 


OTHER  FORMATIVE  BOOKS          187 

Dr.  Nielson  probably  knew  why  he  did  it  so,  but  Pro 
fessor  Anthon  would  have  been  likely  to  say  that  that  was  not 
very  good  Greek  syntax.  It  served  its  purpose,  however,  as 
showing,  what  this  section  was  intended  to  show,  the  various 
uses  of  the  Greek  conjunctions. 

Lincoln,  it  may  be  presumed,  got  little  if  anything  out  of 
the  Greek.  I  find  no  mark  of  his  except  on  this  and  the  facing 
page.  There  he  found  two  admonitions  which  he  boxed  in, 
and  made  a  note  of  them  on  the  false-title : 

4.  Deliberate  slowly,  but  ex 
ecute  promptly,  the  things  which 
have  appeared  unto  thee  proper 
to  be  done. 

5.  Love,  not  the  immoderate 
acquisition,  but  the  moderate  en 
joyment,  of  present  good. 

In  the  front  of  the  book  he  wrote  a  reference  to  this,  and 
added, 

Deliberate  slowly  but 

execute  promptly. 
Think  well  and  do  your  duty. 

These  precepts  seemed  to  impress  him ;  and  they  were  cer 
tainly  characteristic  of  him.  But  we  can  draw  no  very  wide 
deduction  from  his  use  of  the  Greek  or  the  substitution  of  the 
word  in  the  translation. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY 

Two  notable  interviews  touching  the  religious  opinions  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  deserve  record  here.  One  is  by  Rev.  Charles  Chiniquy, 
some  time  priest  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  afterward 
a  strong  Protestant.  He  had  been  a  client  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
in  Illinois,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  trusted  and  believed  in  him.  He 
visited  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  White  House,  and  there,  as  before 
Mr.  Lincoln's  departure  for  Springfield,  he  warned  him  that 
there  were  plots  against  the  life  of  the  President. 

The  other  is  by  Hon.  L.  E.  Chittenden,  who  was  chosen  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  as  Register  of  the  Treasury,  and  who  was  an 
honest  and  incorruptible  man. 

Father  Chiniquy  visited  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  White  House 
in  August,  1 86 1,  June,  1862,  and  June,  1864,  for  the  purpose 
of  warning  Mr.  Lincoln  of  plots,  which  Father  Chiniquy  be 
lieved  to  be  inspired  by  Jesuits,  against  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
On  the  last  of  these  occasions,  June  9,  1864,  in  the  course  of 
an  extended  interview,  he  reported  Mr.  Lincoln  as  saying: 

"  '  You  are  not  the  first  to  warn  me  against  the  dangers  of 
assassination.  My  ambassadors  in  Italy,  France,  and  England, 
as  well  as  Professor  Morse,  have,  many  times,  warned  me 
against  the  plots  of  murderers  whom  they  have  detected  in 
those  different  countries.  But  I  see  no  other  safeguard  against 
these  murderers,  but  to  be  always  ready  to  die,  as  Christ  ad 
vises  it.  As  we  must  all  die  sooner  or  later,  it  makes  very  little 
difference  to  me  whether  I  die  from  a  dagger  plunged  through 
the  heart  or  from  an  inflammation  of  the  lungs.  Let  me  tell 
you  that  I  have,  lately,  read  a  message  in  the  Old  Testament 
which  has  made  a  profound,  and,  I  hope,  a  salutary  impression 
on  me.  Here  is  that  passage.' 

"The  President  took  his  Bible,  opened  it  at  the  third 

188 


CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY       189 

chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and  read  from  the  22d  to  the  27th 
verse : 

"  '  "  22.  Ye  shall  not  fear  them :  for  the  Lord  your  God 
he  shall  fight  for  you. 

"  '  "  23.    And  I  besought  the  Lord  at  that  time,  saying, 

"  '  "  24.  O  Lord  God,  thou  hast  begun  to  shew  thy  servant 
thy  greatness,  and  thy  mighty  hand :  for  what  God  is  there  in 
heaven  or  in  earth,  that  can  do  according  to  thy  works,  and 
according  to  thy  might  ? 

"  '  "  25.  I  pray  thee,  let  me  go  over,  and  see  the  good  land 
that  is  beyond  Jordan,  that  goodly  mountain,  and  Lebanon. 

"  '  "  26.  But  the  Lord  was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes, 
and  would  not  hear  me :  and  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Let  it 
suffice  thee;  speak  no  more  unto  me  of  this  matter. 

" '  "  27.  Get  thee  up  into  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and  lift  up 
thine  eyes  westward,  and  northward,  and  southward,  and  east 
ward,  and  behold  it  with  thine  eyes ;  for  thou  shalt  not  go  over 
this  Jordan." 

"  After  the  President  had  read  these  words  with  great 
solemnity,  he  added : 

"  '  My  dear  Father  Chiniquy,  let  me  tell  you  that  I  have 
read  these  strange  and  beautiful  words  several  times,  these  last 
five  or  six  weeks.  The  more  I  read  them,  the  more  it  seems 
to  me  that  God  has  written  them  for  me  as  well  as  for  Moses. 

"  *  Has  He  not  taken  me  from  my  poor  log  cabin,  by  the 
hand,  as  He  did  Moses,  in  the  reeds  of  the  Nile,  to  put  me 
at  the  head  of  the  greatest  and  most  blessed  of  modern  nations 
just  as  He  put  that  prophet  at  the  head  of  the  most  blessed 
nation  of  ancient  times?  Has  not  God  granted  me  a  privi 
lege,  which  was  not  granted  to  any  living  man,  when  I  broke 
the  fetters  of  4,000,000  of  men,  and  made  them  free?  Has 
not  our  God  given  me  the  most  glorious  victories  over  my 
enemies?  Are  not  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  so  reduced 
to  a  handful  of  men,  when  compared  to  what  they  were  two 
years  ago,  that  the  day  is  fast  approaching  when  they  will 
have  to  surrender  ? 

"  '  Now,  I  see  the  end  of  this  terrible  conflict,  with  the  same 
joy  of  Moses,  when  at  the  end  of  his  trying  forty  years  in  the 
wilderness;  and  I  pray  my  God  to  grant  me  to  see  the  days 
of  peace  and  untold  prosperity,  which  will  follow  this  cruel 
war,  as  Moses  asked  God  to  see  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and 


190     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

enter  the  Promised  Land.  But,  do  you  know,  that  I  hear  in 
my  soul,  as  the  voice  of  God,  giving  me  the  rebuke  which  was 
given  to  Moses? 

"  *  Yes !  every  time  that  my  soul  goes  to  God  to  ask  the 
favor  of  seeing  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  eating  the  fruits 
of  that  peace,  after  which  I  am  longing  with  such  an  unspeak 
able  desire,  do  you  know  that  there  is  a  still  but  solemn  voice 
which  tells  me  that  I  will  see  those  things  only  from  a  long 
distance,  and  that  I  will  be  among  the  dead  when  the  nation, 
which  God  granted  me  to  lead  through  those  awful  trials,  will 
cross  the  Jordan,  and  dwell  in  that  Land  of  Promise,  where 
peace,  industry,  happiness,  and  liberty  will  make  everyone 
happy;  and  why  so?  Because  He  has  already  given  me 
favors  which  He  never  gave,  I  dare  say,  to  any  man  in  these 
latter  days. 

"  '  Why  did  God  Almighty  refuse  to  Moses  the  favor  of 
crossing  the  Jordan,  and  entering  the  Promised  Land  ?  It  was 
on  account  of  the  nation's  sins!  That  law  of  divine  retribu 
tion  and  justice,  by  which  one  must  suffer  for  another,  is 
surely  a  terrible  mystery.  But  it  is  a  fact  which  no  man  who 
has  any  intelligence  and  knowledge  can  deny.  Moses,  who 
knew  that  law,  though  he  probably  did  not  understand  it  better 
than  we  do,  calmly  says  to  his  people :  "  God  was  wroth  with 
me  for  your  sakes." 

"  '  But,  though  we  do  not  understand  that  mysterious  and 
terrible  law,  we  find  it  written  in  letters  of  tears  and  blood 
wherever  we  go.  We  do  not  read  a  single  page  of  history 
without  finding  undeniable  traces  of  its  existence. 

"  '  Where  is  the  mother  who  has  not  shed  real  tears  and 
suffered  real  tortures,  for  her  children's  sake? 

"  '  Who  is  the  good  king,  the  worthy  emperor,  the  gifted 
chieftain,  who  has  not  suffered  unspeakable  mental  agonies,  or 
even  death,  for  his  people's  sake  ? 

" '  Is  not  our  Christian  religion  the  highest  expression  of 
the  wisdom,  mercy,  and  love  of  God !  But  what  is  Christianity 
if  not  the  very  incarnation  of  that  eternal  law  of  Divine  justice 
in  our  humanity  ? 

" '  When  I  look  on  Moses,  alone,  silently  dying  on  the 
Mount  Pisgah,  I  see  that  law,  in  one  of  its  most  sublime  human 
manifestations,  and  I  am  filled  with  admiration  and  awe. 

" '  But  when  I  consider  that  law  of  justice,  and  expiation 


CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINTQUY      191 

in  the  death  of  the  Just,  the  divine  Son  of  Mary,  on  the  Mount 
of  Calvary,  I  remain  mute  in  my  adoration.  The  spectacle  of 
the  Crucified  One  which  is  before  my  eyes  is  more  than 
sublime,  it  is  divine!  Moses  died  for  his  People's  sake,  but 
Christ  died  for  the  whole  world's  sake !  Both  died  to  fulfill 
the  same  eternal  law  of  the  Divine  justice,  though  in  a  dif 
ferent  measure. 

"  '  Now,  would  it  not  be  the  greatest  of  honors  and  privi 
leges  bestowed  upon  me,  if  God  in  His  infinite  love,  mercy, 
and  wisdom  would  put  me  between  His  faithful  servant, 
Moses,  and  His  eternal  Son,  Jesus,  that  I  might  die  as  they 
did,  for  my  nation's  sake ! 

"  *  My  God  alone  knows  what  I  have  already  suffered 
for  my  dear  country's  sake.  But  my  fear  is  that  the  justice 
of  God  is  not  yet  paid.  When  I  look  upon  the  rivers  of  tears 
and  blood  drawn  by  the  lashes  of  the  merciless  masters  from 
the  veins  of  the  very  heart  of  those  millions  of  defenseless 
slaves,  these  two  hundred  years;  when  I  remember  the 
agonies,  the  cries,  the  unspeakable  tortures  of  those  unfortu- 
,nate  people  to  which  I  have,  to  some  extent,  connived  with  so 
many  others  a  part  of  my  life,  I  fear  that  we  are  still  far  from 
the  complete  expiation.  For  the  judgments  of  God  are  true 
and  righteous. 

"  '  It  seems  to  me-that  the  Lord  wants  today,  as  He  wanted 
in  the  days  of  Moses,  another  victim — a  victim  which  He  has 
himself  chosen,  anointed  and  prepared  for  the  sacrifice,  by 
raising  it  above  the  rest  of  His  people.  I  cannot  conceal  from 
you  that  my  impression  is  that  I  am  the  victim.  So  many  plots 
have  already  been  made  against  my  life,  that  it  is  a  real 
miracle  that  they  have  all  failed.  But  can  we  expect  that 
God  will  make  a  perpetual  miracle  to  save  my  life  ?  I  believe 
not. 

'  But  just  as  the  Lord  heard  no  murmur  from  the  lips  of 
Moses,  when  He  told  him  that  he  had  to  die  before  crossing 
the  Jordan,  for  the  sins  of  his  people,  so  I  hope  and  pray 
that  He  will  hear  no  murmur  from  me  when  I  fall  for  my 
nation's  sake. 

"  *  The  only  two  favors  I  ask  of  the  Lord  are,  first,  that 
I  may  die  for  the  sacred  cause  in  which  I  am  engaged,  and 
when  I  am  the  standard  bearer  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
my  country. 


192    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  '  The  second  favor  I  ask  from  God  is  that  my  dear  son, 
Robert,  when  I  am  gone,  will  be  one  of  those  who  lift  up  that 
flag  of  Liberty  which  will  cover  my  tomb,  and  carry  it  with 
honor  and  fidelity  to  the  end  of  his  life,  as  his  father  did, 
surrounded  by  the  millions  who  will  be  called  with  him  to  fight 
and  die  for  the  defense  and  honor  of  our  country/ 

"  *  Never  had  I  heard  such  sublime  words/  says  Father 
Chiniquy.  *  Never  had  I  seen  a  human  face  so  solemn  and 
so  prophet-like  as  the  face  of  the  President  when  uttering 
these  things.  Every  sentence  had  come  to  me  as  a  hymn  from 
heaven,  reverberated  by  the  echoes  of  the  mountains  of  Pisgah 
and  Calvary.  I  was  beside  myself.  Bathed  in  tears, '  I  tried 
to  say  something,  but  I  could  not  utter  a  word.  I  knew  the 
hour  to  leave  had  come.  I  asked  from  the  President  permis 
sion  to  fall  on  my  knees  and  pray  with  him  that  his  life  might 
be  spared ;  and  he  knelt  with  me.  But  I  prayed  more  with  my 
tears  and  sobs  than  with  my  words.  Then  I  pressed  his  hand 
on  my  lips  and  bathed  it  with  tears,  and  with  a  heart  filled 
with  an  unspeakable  desolation,  I  bade  him  adieu.'  " — Fifty 
Years  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  pp.  706-10. 

Hon.  L.  E.  Chittenden,  Register  of  the  Treasury  under 
Lincoln,  gives  this  testimony  to  Lincoln's  religious  character : 

"  In  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1864  there  were  sullen 
whisperings  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  religious  opinions  nor 
any  interest  in  churches  or  Christian  institutions.  They  faded 
away  with  other  libels,  never  to  be  renewed  until  after  his 
death.  One  of  his  biographers,  who  calls  himself  the  '  friend 
and  partner  for  twenty  years '  of  the  deceased  President,  has 
since  published  what  he  calls  a  history  of  his  life,  in  which 
he  revives  the  worst  of  these  rumors,  with  additions  which,  if 
true,  would  destroy  much  of  the  world's  respect  for  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  He  asserts  that  his  '  friend  and  partner  '  was  '  an  infidel 
verging  towards  atheism/  Others  have  disseminated  these 
charges  in  lectures  and  fugitive  sketches  so  industriously  that 
they  have  produced  upon  strangers  some  impression  of  their 
truth.  The  excuse  alleged  is,  their  desire  to  present  Mr.  Lin 
coln  to  the  world  '  just  as  he  was/  Their  real  purpose  is  to 
present  him  just  as  they  would  have  him  to  be,  as  much  as 
possible  like  themselves. 


CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY       193 

"  It  is  a  trait  of  the  infidel  to  parade  his  unbelief  before 
the  public,  and  he  thinks  something  gained  to  himself  when  he 
can  show  that  others  are  equally  deficient  in  moral  qualities. 
But  these  writers  have  attempted  too  much.  Their  principal 
charge  of  infidelity,  tinged  with  atheism,  is  so  completely  at 
variance  with  all  our  knowledge  of  his  opinions  that  its  origin 
must  be  attributed  to  malice  or  to  a  defective  mental  con 
stitution. 

"  His  sincerity  and  candor  were  conspicuous  qualities  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  mind.  Deception  was  a  vice  in  which  he  had 
neither  experience  nor  skill.  All  who  were  admitted  to  his 
intimacy  will  agree  that  he  was  incapable  of  professing  opin 
ions  which  he  did  not  entertain.  When  we  find  him  at  the 
moment  of  leaving  his  home  for  Washington,  surrounded  by 
his  neighbors  of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  taking  Washington  for 
his  exemplar,  whose  success  he  ascribed  *  to  the  aid  of  that 
Divine  Providence  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied/  and 
publicly  declaring  that  he,  himself,  *  placed  his  whole  trust  in 
the  same  Almighty  Being,  and  the  prayers  of  Christian  men 
and  women ' ;  when,  not  once  or  twice,  but  on  all  proper,  and 
more  than  a  score  of  subsequent  occasions,  he  avowed  his  faith 
in  an  Omnipotent  Ruler,  who  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness — in  the  Bible  as  the  inspired  record  of  His  his 
tory  and  His  law;  when  with  equal  constancy  he  thanked 
Almighty  God  for,  and  declared  his  interest  in,  Christian  insti 
tutions  and  influences  as  the  appointed  means  for  his  effective 
service,  we  may  assert  that  we  know  that  he  was  neither  an 
atheist  nor  an  infidel,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  sincere  believer  in 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith.  In  fact,  he 
believed  so  confidently  that  the  Almighty  was  making  use  of 
the  war,  of  himself,  and  other  instrumentalities  in  working  out 
some  great  design  for  the  benefit  of  humanity,  and  his  belief 
that  he  himself  was  directed  by  the  same  Omniscient  Power 
was  expressed  with  such  frankness  and  frequency,  that  it 
attracted  attention,  and  was  criticized  by  some  as  verging 
towards  superstition.  His  public  life  was  a  continuous  service 
of  God  and  his  fellow-man,  controlled  and  guided  by  the 
golden  rule,  in  which  there  was  no  hiatus  of  unbelief  or 
incredulity. 

"  Here  I  might  well  stop,  and  submit  that  these  charges  do 
not  deserve  any  further  consideration.  But  I  know  how  false 


194    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

they  are,  and  I  may  be  excused  if  I  record  one  of  my  sources 
of  knowledge. 

"  The  emphatic  statement  made  by  the  President  to  Mr. 
Fessenden,  that  he  was  called  to  the  Presidency  by  a  Power 
higher  than  human  authority,  I  have  already  mentioned.  His 
calm  serenity  at  times  when  others  were  so  anxious, 'his  con 
fidence  that  his  own  judgment  was  directed  by  the  Almighty, 
so  impressed  me  that,  when  I  next  had  the  opportunity,  at 
some  risk  of  giving  offense,  I  ventured  to  ask  him  directly 
how  far  he  believed  the  Almighty  actually  directed  our  national 
affairs.  There  was  a  considerable  pause  before  he  spoke,  and 
when  he  did  speak,  what  he  said  was  more  in  the  nature  of  a 
monologue  than  an  answer  to  my  inquiry : 

" '  That  the  Almighty  does  make  use  of  human  agencies, 
and  directly  intervenes  in  human  affairs,  is/  he  said,  *  one  of 
the  plainest  evidences  of  His  direction,  so  many  instances  when 
I  have  been  controlled  by  some  other  power  than  my  own  will, 
that  I  cannot  doubt  that  this  power  comes  from  above.  I  fre 
quently  see  my  way  clear  to  a  decision  when  I  am  conscious 
that  I  have  no  sufficient  facts  upon  which  to  found  it.  But  I 
cannot  recall  one  instance  in  which  I  have  followed  my  own 
judgment,  founded  upon  such  a  decision,  where  the  results 
were  unsatisfactory;  whereas,  in  almost  every  instance  where 
I  have  yielded  to  the  views  of  others,  I  have  had  occasion 
to  regret  it.  I  am  satisfied  that  when  the  Almighty  wants  me 
to  do  or  not  to  do  a  particular  thing,  He  finds  a  way  of  letting 
me  know  it.  I  am  confident  that  it  is  His  design  to  restore  the 
Union.  He  will  do  it  in  His  own  good  time.  We  should  obey 
and  not  oppose  His  will/ 

"  *  You  speak  with  such  confidence/  I  said,  *  that  I  would 
like  to  know  how  your  knowledge  that  God  acts  directly  upon 
human  affairs  compares  in  certainty  with  your  knowledge  of  a 
fact  apparent  to  the  senses — for  example,  the  fact  that  we  are 
at  this  moment  here  in  this  room/ 

"  '  One  is  as  certain  as  the  other/  he  answered,  '  although 
the  conclusions  are  reached  by  different  processes.  I  know  by 
my  senses  that  the  movements  of  the  world  are  those  of  an 
infinitely  powerful  machine,  which  runs  for  ages  without  a 
variation.  A  man  who  can  put  two  ideas  together  knows  that 
such  a  machine  requires  an  infinitely  powerful  maker  and 
governor :  man's  nature  is  such  that  he  cannot  take  in  the 


CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY       195 

machine  and  keep  out  the  maker.  This  maker  is  God — infinite 
in  wisdom  as  well  as  in  power.  Would  we  be  any  more  cer 
tain  if  we  saw  Him?  ' 

"  '  I  am  not  controverting  your  position/  I  said.  '  Your 
confidence  interests  me  beyond  expression.  I  wish  I  knew  how 
to  acquire  it.  Even  now,  must  it  not  all  depend  on  our  faith 
in  the  Bible?  ' 

"  '  No.  There  is  the  element  of  personal  experience/  he 
said.  '  If  it  did,  the  character  of  the  Bible  is  easily  established, 
at  least  to  my  satisfaction.  We  have  to  believe  many  things 
which  we  do  not  comprehend.  The  Bible  is  the  only  one  that 
claims  to  be  God's  Book — to  comprise  His  law — His  history, 
It  contains  an  immense  amount  of  evidence  of  its  own  authen 
ticity.  It  describes  a  governor  omnipotent  enough  to  operate 
this  great  machine,  and  declares  that  He  made  it.  It  states 
other  facts  which  we  do  not  fully  comprehend,  but  which  we 
cannot  account  for.  What  shall  we  do  with  them  ? 

"  '  Now  let  us  treat  the  Bible  fairly.  If  we  had  a  witness 
on  the  stand  whose  general  story  we  knew  was  true,  we  would 
believe  him  when  he  asserted  facts  of  which  we  had  no  other 
evidence.  We  ought  to  treat  the  Bible  with  equal  fairness.  I 
decided  a  long  time  ago  that  it  was  less  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  Bible  was  what  it  claimed  to  be  than  to  disbelieve 
it.  It  is  a  good  book  for  us  to  obey — it  contains  the  ten  com 
mandments,  the  golden  rule,  and  many  other  rules  which  ought 
to  be  followed.  No  man  was  ever  the  worse  for  living  accord 
ing  to  the  directions  of  the  Bible/ 

"  '  If  your  views  are  correct,  the  Almighty  is  on  our  side, 
and  we  ought  to  win  without  so  many  losses ' 

"  He  promptly  interrupted  me  and  said,  '  We  have  no  right 
to  criticize  or  complain.  He  is  on  our  side,  and  so  is  the  Bible, 
and  so  are  churches  and  Christian  societies  and  organizations 
— all  of  them,  so  far  as  I  know,  almost  without  an  exception. 
It  makes  me  strong  and  more  confident  to  know  that  all  the 
Christians  in  the  loyal  States  are  praying  for  our  success,  that 
all  their  influences  are  working  to  the  same  end.  Thousands 
of  them  are  fighting  for  us,  and  no  one  will  say  that  an  officer 
or  a  private  is  less  brave  because  he  is  a  praying  soldier.  At 
first,  when  we  had  such  long  spells  of  bad  luck,  I  used  to 
lose  heart  sometimes.  Now  I  seem  to  know  that  Providence 
has  protected  and  will  protect  us  against  any  fatal  defeat. 


196    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

All  we  have  to  do  is  to  trust  the  Almighty  and  keep  right  on 
obeying  His  orders  and  executing  His  will.' 

"  I  could  not  press  inquiry  further.  I  knew  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  no  hypocrite.  There  was  an  air  of  such  sincerity 
in  his  manner  of  speaking,  and  especially  in  his  references  to 
the  Almighty,  that  no  one  could  have  doubted  his  faith  unless 
the  doubter  believed  him  dishonest.  It  scarcely  needed  his 
repeated  statements  that  '  whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's 
will,  that  will  I  do/  his  special  gratitude  to  God  for  victories, 
or  his  numerous  expressions  of  his  firm  faith  that  God  willed 
our  final  triumph,  to  convince  the  American  people  that  he  was 
not  and  could  not  be  an  atheist  or.  an  infidel. 

"  He  has  written  of  the  Bible,  that  '  this  great  Book  of 
God  is  the  best  gift  which  God  has  ever  given  to  man,'  and 
that  '  all  things  desirable  for  man  to  know  are  contained  in 
it.'  His  singular  familiarity  with  its  contents  is  even  stronger 
evidence  of  the  high  place  it  held  in  his  judgment.  His  second 
inaugural  address  shows  how  sensibly  he  appreciated  the  force 
and  beauty  of  its  passages,  and  constitutes  an  admirable  appli 
cation  of  its  truths,  only  possible  as  the  result  of  familiar  use 
and  thorough  study. 

"  Further  comment  cannot  be  necessary.  Abraham  Lin 
coln  accepted  the  Bible  as  the  inspired  word  of  God — he  be 
lieved  and  faithfully  endeavored  to  live  according  to  the 
fundamental  principles  and  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith. 
To  doubt  either  proposition  is  to  be  untrue  to  his  memory,  a 
disloyalty  of  which  no  American  should  be  guilty." — CHITTEN- 
DEN  :  Recollections  of  President  Lincoln  and  His  Administra 
tion,  pp.  446-5 1. 

These  two  incidents  call  for  no  extended  comment.  That 
in  each  of  them  the  literary  style  is  more  like  that  of  the  nar 
rator  than  it  is  like  the  style  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is  evident,  and 
there  is  other  apparent  evidence  that  the  incidents  were  colored 
by  the  imagination  of  the  two  men  who  related  them.  But 
neither  of  them  was  a  lie.  And,  when  we  make  due  deduc 
tions,  each  contains  a  basis  of  fact  in  accord  with  what  we 
might  have  expected  Lincoln  to  say. 

For  instance,  the  assurance  which  he  expressed  to  Chitten- 
den  that  God  had  called  him  to  his  work  as  President,  and  that 


CHITTENDEN  AND  CHINIQUY      197 

he  was  fulfilling  divine  destiny,  is  fully  in  accord  with  the 
strong  conviction  of  predestination  which  he  had  received  in 
his  youth,  and  which  was  so  marked  that  his  partners  took  it 
as  a  mark  of  selfish  superiority.  He  did  feel,  and  felt  so 
strongly  that  he  sometimes  seemed  to  be  oblivious  to  other  and 
correlative  truths,  that  God  had  called  him  to  a  great  task,  and 
that  he  would  live  till  it  was  accomplished,  plots  or  no  plots. 
But  he  had  a  gloomy  foreboding  that  he  would  not  live  much 
longer.  His  conviction  of  predestination  had  in  it  a  com 
pelling  sense  of  destiny  and  almost  of  doom,  a  conviction  of 
Divinity  shaping  his  ends,  even  though  he  rough-hewed  them. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  BEECHER  AND  SICKLES  INCIDENTS 

AMONG  the  many  stories  of  President  Lincoln's  religious  life, 
one  of  the  most  impressive  concerns  an  alleged  visit  of  the 
President  to  the  home  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  the  spend 
ing  of  a  night  in  prayer  by  these  two  men.  The  story  is  as 
follows : 

"  Following  the  disaster  of  Bull  Run,  when  the  strength 
and  resources  of  the  nation  seemed  to  have  been  wasted,  the 
hopes  of  the  North  were  at  their  lowest  ebb,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  well-nigh  overwhelmed  with  the  awful  responsibility  of 
guiding  the  nation  in  its  life  struggle.  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
of  Brooklyn,  was,  perhaps,  more  prominently  associated  with 
the  cause  of  the  North  at  that  time  than  any  other  minister  of 
the  gospel.  He  had  preached  and  lectured  and  fought  its 
battles  in  pulpit  and  press  all  over  the  country,  had  ransomed 
slaves  from  his  pulpit,  and  his  convictions  and  feelings  were 
everywhere  known. 

"  Late  one  evening  a  stranger  called  at  his  home  and  asked 
to  see  him.  Mr.  Beecher  was  working  alone  in  his  study,  as 
was  his  custom,  and  this  stranger  refused  to  send  up  his  name, 
and  came  muffled  in  a  military  cloak  which  completely  hid  his 
face.  Mrs.  Beecher's  suspicions  were  aroused,  and  she  was 
very  unwilling  that  he  should  have  the  interview  which  he 
requested,  especially  as  Mr.  Beecher's  life  had  been  frequently 
threatened  by  sympathizers  with  the  South.  The  latter,  how 
ever,  insisted  that  his  visitor  be  shown  up.  Accordingly,  the 
stranger  entered,  the  doors  were  shut,  and  for  hours  the  wife 
below  could  hear  their  voices  and  their  footsteps  as  they  paced 
back  and  forth.  Finally,  toward  midnight,  the  mysterious 
visitor  went  out,  still  muffled  in  his  cloak,  so  that  it  was  im 
possible  to  gain  any  idea  of  his  features. 

"  The  years  went  by,  the  war  was  finished,  the  President 

198 


BEECHER  AND  SICKLES  INCIDENTS     199 

had  suffered  martyrdom  at  his  post,  and  it  was  not  until  shortly 
before  Mr.  Beecher's  death,  over  twenty  years  later,  that  he 
made  known  that  the  mysterious  stranger  who  had  called  on 
that  stormy  night  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  stress  and 
strain  of  those  days  and  nights  of  struggle,  with  all  the  respon 
sibilities  and  sorrows  of  a  nation  fighting  for  its  life  resting 
upon  him,  had  broken  his  strength,  and  for  a  time  undermined 
his  courage.  He  had  traveled  alone  in  disguise  and  at  night 
from  Washington  to  Brooklyn,  to  gain  the  sympathy  and  help 
of  one  whom  he  knew  as  a  man  of  God,  engaged  in  the  same 
great  battle  in  which  he  was  the  leader.  Alone  for  hours  that 
night,  like  Jacob  of  old,  the  two  had  wrestled  together  in 
prayer  with  the  God  of  battles  and  the  Watcher  over  the  right 
until  they  had  received  the  help  which  He  had  promised  to 
those  that  seek  His  aid." 

Dr.  Johnson  endeavored  to  investigate  this  story  for  his 
book,  Lincoln  the  Christian.*  The  evidence  seemed  to  him  suf 
ficient  to  justify  him  in  including  it  in  his  volume.  It  rests  on 
the  explicit  statement  of  Mrs.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  was 
communicated  to  the  public  through  some  of  her  grandchil 
dren.  This,  surely,  is  evidence  that  cannot  be  wholly  disre 
garded.  Mr.  Samuel  Scoville,  Jr.,  a  lawyer  in  Philadelphia, 
a  grandson  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  confirmed  the  accuracy 
of  the  story  as  here  given,  saying  that  this  was  the  form  in 
which  his  grandmother  had  related  the  story  to  her  grand 
children. 

Another  grandson,  Rev.  David  G.  Downey,  D.D.,  Book 
Editor  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  of  New  York  said: 

1  This  book  had  been  written  and  was  in  course  of  revision  when 
I  procured  Dr.  Chapman's  Latest  Light  on  Lincoln.  It  is  a  book  by  one 
who  loved  Lincoln  sincerely,  and  can  discover  in  him  no  lack  of  any 
desirable  quality;  even  physical  beauty  and  grace  of  movement  are  here 
attributed  to  Lincoln,  as  well  as  the  acceptance  of  all  the  fundamental 
articles  of  the  creeds.  He  accepts  the  Beecher  incident,  declaring  that 
Dr.  Johnson  informed  him  that  "after  thorough  investigation  he  fully 
believed  it  to  be  truthful  and  authentic,"  and  affirming  that  "upon  the 
scene  of  this  unique  event  there  rests  a  halo  of  celestial  beauty  too  sacred 
to  be  regarded  with  indifference  or  doubt."  The  halo  may  be  there,  but 
is  it  true?  Was  there  any  period  of  twenty- four  hours  while  Lincoln 
was  in  the  White  House  when  this  could  have  occurred,  and  the  fact 
concealed  from  the  public?  It  is  altogether  less  improbable  that  Mrs. 
Beecher  in  her  extreme  old  age  and  failing  mentality  was  mistaken  about 
the  identity  of  one  of  Mr.  Beecher's  callers. 


200    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  perfectly  possible 
situation.  It  has  never,  however,  been  corroborated  by  any 
of  the  members  of  the  family.  It  rests  entirely  upon  the 
statement  of  Mrs.  Beecher  in  her  old  age." — Lincoln  the 
Christian,  p.  201. 

Mrs.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  a  truthful  woman.  She 
did  not  manufacture  an  incident  of  this  character,  but  the 
incident  is  highly  improbable.  It  would  be  ungracious  to  point 
out  in  detail  the  elements  of  weakness  in  the  story. 

Let  one  consideration  alone  be  stated.  The  publishers  of 
the  North  American  Review  gathered  from  the  leading  men  of 
America  a  series  of  chapters  in  which  each  man  related  his 
own  personal  reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  That 
volume  is  still  easily  obtained  and  is  a  valuable  mine  of  in 
formation.  Among  the  other  men  who  contributed  to  it  was 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.  He  wrote  a  chapter  in  which  he  told 
in  detail  of  his  personal  association  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  This 
incident  finds  no  mention  there  nor  anything  remotely  re 
sembling  it. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  felt  disposed  to  visit  Mr.  Beecher  for 
a  purpose  of  this  character,  he  knew  very  well  that  the  easier 
and  safer  and  far  less  embarrassing  way  was  to  invite  Mr. 
Beecher  to  the  White  House  to  see  him.  Beecher  was  no 
stranger  in  Washington  at  this  time  and  Lincoln  had  the 
telegraph  wires  under  his  control  and  did  not  hesitate  to  use 
them  when  there  was  need.  Beecher  made  at  least  one  jour 
ney  to  Washington  to  confer  with  Lincoln  on  a  matter  of  edi 
torial  policy.  His  well-known  sympathy  with  the  President 
was  such  that  no  explanation  need  have  been  made  of  his 
taking  a  train  from  New  York  on  any  day  and  spending  an 
evening  in  Washington.  A  message  in  the  morning  would 
have  brought  Beecher  there  by  night  and  no  one  either  in 
Washington  or  New  York  would  have  thought  of  it  as  strange. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  absence  of  the  President  from  Wash 
ington  at  a  time  as  critical  as  that  immediately  following  the 
Battle  of  Bull  Run  and  with  no  one  able  to  account  for  his 
absence  from  the  Capitol  or  with  any  knowledge  of  the  errand 


BEECHER  AND  SICKLES  INCIDENTS     201 

that  had  taken  him  away  is  well-nigh  preposterous.  Such  an 
absence  might  have  given  rise  to  the  wildest  rumors  of  the 
President's  abduction  or  murder.  Lincoln  was  too  prudent  a 
man,  too  shrewd  and  cautious  a  man,  too  deeply  concerned  for 
the  possible  effect  of  so  rash  and  needless  a  journey;  too 
deeply  chagrined  over  the  criticisms  of  his  alleged  entering  into 
Washington  in  disguise  at  the  time  of  his  inauguration,  to 
have  done  the  thing  which  Mrs.  Beecher,  when  a  very  old 
woman,  imagined  him  to  have  done. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  editor  of  The  Christian  Union  and  had 
occasion  to  write  about  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  he  wrote  noth 
ing  of  this  kind.  In  his  sermons  and  in  his  lectures  he  had 
frequent  occasion  to  mention  Lincoln,  and  no  story  of  this  sort 
is  related  as  having  come  from  him.  Mr.  Beecher  knew  too 
well  the  homiletic  and  editorial  value  of  such  an  incident  not  to 
have  related  it  if  it  had  occurred. 

Someone  came  to  see  him  one  stormy  night  and  the  two 
lingered  long  together  in  prayer.  For  some  doubtless  good 
reason  Mr.  Beecher  did  not  tell  his  family  the  name  of  the 
man  with  whom  he  had  spent  those  earnest  *  hours.  Many 
years  afterward,  Lincoln  and  Beecher  both  being  dead,  Mrs. 
Beecher  recalled  the  event  and  satisfied  herself  that  it  was  Mr. 
Lincoln  who  had  come  from  Washington  to  see  her  husband 
and  spend  some  hours  in  prayer  with  him. 

This  is  the  reasonable  explanation,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  an 
incident  which  has  had  rather  wide  currency  but  which  we  are 
not  justified  in  accepting  on  the  unsupported  testimony  of  even 
so  good  a  woman  as  Mrs.  Beecher  in  her  old  age. 

An  incident  of  remarkable  interest,  attested  as  authentic  by 
two  generals  of  the  Civil  War,  is  related  by  General  James 
F.  Rusling,  in  his  Men  and  Things  in  Civil  War  Days: 

General  D.  E.  Sickles  was  wounded  at  Gettysburg,  and 
brought  to  Washington,  where  a  leg  was  amputated.  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  called  upon  him,  and  in  reply  to  a  question  from 
General  Sickles  whether  or  not  the  President  was  anxious 
about  the  battle  at  Gettysburg,  Lincoln  gravely  said,  '  No,  I 
was  not;  some  of  my  Cabinet  and  many  others  in  Washington 
were,  but  I  had  no  fears.'  General  Sickles  inquired  how  this 


202     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

was,  and  seemed  curious  about  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  hesitated,  but 
finally  replied :  '  Well,  I  will  tell  you  how  it  was.  In  the  pinch 
of  your  campaign  up  there,  when  everybody  seemed  panic- 
stricken,  and  nobody  could  tell  what  was  going  to  happen,  op 
pressed  by  the  gravity  of  our  affairs,  I  went  to  my  room  one 
day,  and  I  locked  the  door,  and  got  down  on  my  knees  before 
Almighty  God,  and  prayed  to  Him  mightily  for  victory  at 
Gettysburg.  I  told  Him  that  this  was  His  war,  and  our  cause 
His  cause,  but  we  couldn't  stand  another  Fredericksburg  or 
Chancellorsville.  And  I  then  and  there  made  a  solemn  vow 
to  Almighty  God,  that  if  He  would  stand  by  our  boys  at 
Gettysburg,  I  would  stand  by  Him.  And  He  did  stand  by 
you  boys,  and  I  will  stand  by  Him.  And  after  that  (I  don't 
know  how  it  was,  and  I  can't  explain  it),  soon  a  sweet  comfort 
crept  into  my  soul  that  God  Almighty  had  taken  the  whole 
business  into  his  own  hands  and  that  things  would  go  all 
right  at  Gettysburg.  And  that  is  why  I  had  no  fears  about 
you/  Asked  concerning  Vicksburg,  the  news  of  which  victory 
had  not  yet  reached  him,  he  said,  '  I  have  been  praying  for 
Vicksburg  also,  and  believe  our  Heavenly  Father  is  going  to 
give  us  victory  there,  too.'  General  Rusling  says  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  spoke  '  solemnly  and  pathetically,  as  if  from  the  depth 
of  his  heart,'  and  that  his  manner  was  deeply  touching."  2 

2  Dr.  Johnson  quotes  this  in  his  Abraham  Lincoln  the  Christian,  and 
with  it  gives  a  photo  reproduction  of  this  page  of  his  manuscript,  bearing 
in  the  margin  the  attestation  of  both  Generals  Sickles  and  Rusling: 

"  I  certify  that  this  statement  of  a  conversation  between  President 
Lincoln  and  General  Sickles,  in  my  presence,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  July 
5,  1863,  relating  to  Gettysburg,  is  correct  and  true.  JAMES  F.  RUSLING, 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  Feb.  17,  1910." 

"  I  hereby  certify  that  the  foregoing  statement  by  General  Rusling 
is  true  in  substance.  I  know  from  my  intimate  acquaintance  with  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  that  he  was  a  religious  man — God-fearing  and  God-loving 
ruler.  D.  E.  SICKLES,  Major  General  U.  S.  Army,  Ret'd,  New  York, 
Feb.  ii,  1911." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
"  BEHIND  THE  SCENES  " 

THE  family  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  ought  to 
be  permitted  a  reasonable  degree  of  privacy,  but  this  has  never 
yet  been  accorded  them.  In  the  case  of  the  family  of  President 
Lincoln  the  rudeness  of  the  public  was  shameful.  It  is  not  our 
present  purpose  to  intrude  into  the  domestic  life  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  if  we  shall  ever  do  so  hereafter  it  will  be, 
let  us  hope,  with  more  of  consideration  than  some  critics  have 
shown. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  a  number  of  books  and 
articles  appeared  which  gave  close  and  intimate  glimpses  of 
the  life  of  President  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  during  the  four  years 
which  they  spent  in  the  White  House.  We  shall  examine  two 
or  three  of  these  only  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
religious  life. 

For  four  years  Mrs.  Lincoln  had  with  her  in  the  White 
House  as  dressmaker  and  attendant  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Keckley, 
an  intelligent  colored  woman.  In  1868  Mrs.  Keckley  pub 
lished  a  book  entitled  Behind  the  Scenes.1-  It  related  many 
intimate  details  of  life  in  the  Lincoln  household,  with  much 
about  Mrs.  Lincoln's  extravagances  of  expenditure  and  in 
firmities  of  temper,  and  some  things  about  Mr.  Lincoln.  It 
is  a  most  informing  book,  though  one  containing  many  details 
which  had  been  as  well  unprinted.  Its  general  truthfulness  is 
attested  by  its  internal  evidence.  Of  Lincoln's  anxiety  when 
battles  were  in  progress,  and  of  the  relief  which  he  sought  in 

1  The  Library  of  Congress  has  a  scurilous  pamphlet  entitled  Behind 
the  Seams;  by  a  Nigger  Woman,  who  took  in  work  for  Mrs.  Lincoln 
and  Mrs.  Davis,  New  York :  The  National  News  Company,  21  and  23 
Ann  Street,  1868.  The  preface  is  signed,  "  Betsy  X  (her  mark)  Kickley, 
a  Nigger."  It  is  a  coarse  parody  on  the  above,  but  would  appear  some 
times  to  have  been  mistaken  for  the  original  work. 

203 


204     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

agonized  prayer,  she  tells,  and  with  apparent  truthfulness.    Of 
one  battle  she  relates: 

"  One  day  he  came  into  the  room  where  I  was  fitting  a 
dress  for  Mrs.  Lincoln.  His  step  was  slow  and  heavy,  and 
his  face  sad.  Like  a  tired  child  he  threw  himself  upon  the 
sofa,  and  shaded  his  eyes  with  his  hands.  He  was  a  complete 
picture  of  dejection.  Mrs.  Lincoln,  observing  his  troubled 
look,  asked: 

"  '  Where  have  you  been  ?  ' 

" '  To  the  War  Department/  was  the  brief,  almost  sullen 
answer. 

"  '  Any  news  ?  ' 

" '  Yes,  plenty  of  news,  but  no  good  news.  It  is  dark, 
dark  everywhere.' 

"  He  reached  forth  one  of  his  long  arms  and  took  a  small 
Bible  from  a  stand  near  the  head  of  the  sofa,  opened  the  pages 
of  the  Holy  Book,  and  soon  was  absorbed  in  reading  them. 
A  quarter  of  an  hour  passed,  and  on  glancing  at  the  sofa  the 
face  of  the  President  seemed  more  cheerful.  The  dejected 
look  was  gone,  and  the  countenance  was  lighted  up  with  new 
resolution  and  hope.  The  change  was  so  marked  that  I  could 
not  but  wonder  at  it,  and  wonder  led  to  the  desire  to  know 
what  book  of  the  Bible  afforded  so  much  comfort  to  the  reader. 
Making  the  search  for  a  missing  article  an  excuse,  I  walked 
gently  around  the  sofa,  and,  looking  into  the  open  book,  I 
discovered  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  reading  that  divine  com 
forter,  Job.  He  read  with  Christian  eagerness,  and  the  cour 
age  and  the  hope  that  he  derived  from  the  inspired  pages 
made  him  a  new  man." — Behind  the  Scenes,  p.  118. 

Mrs.  Keckley  helped  prepare  the  body  of  Willie  for  burial. 
She  relates: 

"  When  Willie  died,  as  he  lay  on  the  bed,  Mr.  Lincoln  came 
to  the  bed,  lifted  the  cover  from  the  face  of  his  child,  gazed 
at  it  long  and  earnestly,  murmuring :  '  My  poor  boy,  he  was 
too  good  for  this  earth.  God  has  called  him  home.  I  know 
that  he  is  much  better  off  in  heaven,  but  then  we  loved  him 
so.  It  is  hard,  hard  to  have  him  die! '  " — Behind  the  Scenes, 
p.  103. 


"  BEHIND  THE  SCENES  "  205 

"  Mrs.  Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  a  Christian  woman  from 
Chelsea,  Massachusetts,  who  had  come  to  nurse  the  Lincoln 
children  in  their  sickness,  speaks  of  Lincoln's  great  affliction 
and  sadness.  On  the  morning  of  the  funeral  she  assured  him 
that  many  Christians  were  praying  for  him.  With  eyes  suf 
fused  with  tears,  he  replied :  1 1  am  glad  to  hear  that.  I  want 
them  to  pray  for  me.  I  need  their  prayers/  Mrs.  Pomeroy 
expressed  her  sympathy  with  him  as  they  were  going  out  to 
the  burial.  Thanking  her  gently,  he  said,  '  I  will  try  to  go  to 
God  with  my  sorrows/  She  asked  him  a  few  days  after  if 
he  could  not  trust  God.  With  deep  religious  feeling,  he  re 
plied  :  '  I  think  I  can,  and  I  will  try.  I  wish  I  had  that  child 
like  faith  you  speak  of,  and  I  trust  He  will  give  it  to  me.' 
Then  the  memory  of  his  mother  filled  his  mind  with  tenderest 
recollections,  and  he  said :  '  I  had  a  good  Christian  mother, 
and  her  prayers  have  followed  me  thus  far  through  life.' " — 
Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  p.  54. 

Mrs.  Pomeroy  was  a  Baptist,  and  had  recently  buried  her 
husband.  She  volunteered  for  service  as  a  nurse  in  the  sol 
diers'  hospitals  in  Washington,  and  in  the  serious  illness  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  two  sons  she  was  installed  as  nurse  in  the  White 
House  and  remained  these  several  months. 

She  relates  that  she  frequently  saw  him  reading  his 
mother's  Bible,  and  that  he  found  especial  comfort  in  the 
Psalms. 

Mrs.  Pomeroy  relates : 

"  On  July  9,  1863,  while  sitting  at  the  dinner  table  he  could 
not  eat,  for  he  seemed  so  full  of  trouble  as  he  said,  '  The  battle 
of  Port  Hudson  is  now  going  on,  and  many  lives  will  be 
sacrificed  on  both  sides,  but  I  have  done  the  best  I  could,  trust 
ing  in  God,  for  if  they  gain  this  important  point,  we  are  lost; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  could  only  gain  it  we  shall  have 
gained  much;  and  I  think  we  shall,  for  we  have  a  great  deal 
to  thank  God  for,  for  we  have  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg 
already.'  Mrs.  Pomeroy  said,  '  Mr.  Lincoln,  prayer  will  do 
what  nothing  else  will ;  can  you  not  pray  ? '  '  Yes,  I  will/ 
he  replied,  and  while  the  tears  were  dropping  from  his  face 
he  said,  '  Pray  for  me/  and  picked  up  a  Bible  and  went  to 
his  room.  '  Could  all  the  people  of  the  nation  have  overheard 


206    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  earnest  petition  that  went  up  from  that  inner  chamber  as 
it  reached  the  ears  of  the  nurse,  they  would  have  fallen  upon 
their  knees  with  tearful  and  reverential  sympathy/  That 
night  he  received  a  dispatch  announcing  a  Union  victory.  He 
went  directly  to  Mrs.  Pomeroy's  room,  his  face  beaming  with 
joy,  saying:  '  Good  news!  Good  news!  Port  Hudson  is 
ours !  The  victory  is  ours,  and  God  is  good/  When  the  lady 
replied,  '  Nothing  like  prayer  in  times  of  trouble/  Mr.  Lincoln 
said,  '  Yes,  O  yes — praise — prayer  and  praise  go  together/ 
Mrs.  Pomeroy  in  relating  this  incident,  said,  '  I  do  believe  he 
was  a  true  Christian,  though  he  had  very  little  confidence  in 
himself/ ' 

Most  valuable,  and  also  most  familiar,  of  these  intimate 
glimpses  into  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln  during  his  years  in  the 
White  House  is  the  book  of  Frank  B.  Carpenter  called,  Six 
Months  in  the  White  House:  The  Inner  Life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  The  book  was  the  work  of  the  artist  who  painted 
the  large  picture  of  the  Signing  of  the  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation.  For  six  months  in  1864  ne  lived  in  the  White 
House  where  a  room  was  fitted  up  for  his  use,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  all  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  sat  to  him  repeatedly.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  quote  this  book,  which  is  widely  scat 
tered,  and  everywhere  available.  It  is  enough  to  remind  our 
selves  that  the  picture  it  gives  us  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  those 
solemn  days  after  the  war  had  settled  down  to  a  clear  issue 
of  slavery  or  freedom,  and  had  become  in  the  mind  of  the 
nation  and  the  world  not  a  political  but  a  moral  issue,  is  one 
of  dignity  and  heroism  and  of  definite  Christian  character. 

An  incident  following  the  death  of  Willie  has  been  related 
on  the  alleged  authority  of  Rev.  Francis  Vinton,  rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  who  was  an  acquaintance  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln  and  visited  Washington  and  called  at  the  White  House 
soon  after  that  sad  event.  As  reported,  he  said  to  Mr. 
Lincoln : 

"  '  Your  son  is  alive/ 

"  *  Alive ! '  exclaimed  Mr.  Lincoln.    '  Surely  you  mock  me/ 

"  '  No,  sir;  believe  me/  replied  Dr.  Vinton;  '  it  is  a  most 


"  BEHIND  THE  SCENES  "  207 

comforting  doctrine  of  the  Church,  founded  upon  the  words 
of  Christ  Himself.' 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  threw  his  arm  around  Dr.  Vint  on' s  neck, 
laid  his  head  upon  his  breast,  and  sobbed  aloud,  'Alive? 
Alive  f ' 

"  Dr.  Vinton,  greatly  moved,  said :  *  My  dear  sir,  believe 
this,  for  it  is  God's  most  precious  truth.  Seek  not  your  son 
among  the  dead;  he  is  not  there;  he  lives  today  in  paradise! 
Think  of  the  full  import  of  the  words  I  have  quoted.  The 
Sadducees,  when  they  questioned  Jesus,  had  no  other  concep 
tion  than  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were  dead  and 
buried.  Mark  the  reply :  "  Now  that  the  dead  are  raised,  even 
Moses  showed  at  the  bush  when  he  called  the  Lord  the  God  of 
Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  For  He 
is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living,  for  all  live  unto 
Him! "  Did  not  the  great  patriarch  mourn  his  sons  as  dead? 
"  Joseph  is  not,  and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take  Benjamin, 
also ! "  But  Joseph  and  Simeon  were  both  living,  though  he 
believed  it  not.  Indeed,  Joseph  being  taken  from  him  was 
the  eventual  means  of  the  preservation  of  the  whole  family. 
And  so  God  has  called  your  son  into  His  upper  kingdom — a 
kingdom  and  an  existence  as  real,  more  real,  than  your  own. 
It  may  be  that  he  too,  like  Joseph,  has  gone,  in  God's  good 
providence,  to  be  the  salvation  of  his  father's  household.  It  is 
a  part  of  the  Lord's  plan  for  the  ultimate  happiness  of  you 
and  yours.  Doubt  it  not/ 

"  Dr.  Vinton  [so  the  narrative  proceeds]  told  Lincoln 
that  he  had  a  sermon  upon  the  subject.  Mr.  Lincoln  asked 
him  to  send  it  to  him  as  early  as  possible,  and  thanked  him 
repeatedly  for  his  cheering  and  hopeful  words.  When  Lin 
coln  received  the  sermon  he  read  it  over  and  over,  and  had 
a  copy  made  for  his  own  private  use.  A  member  of  the 
family  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  in  relation  to  spiritual 
things  seemed  changed  from  that  hour." — CARPENTER,  pp. 
117-19. 

Such  an  incident  cannot  be  wholly  false;  nor  is  it  quite 
conceivable  that  it  is  wholly  true.  That  Lincoln  talked  with 
Dr.  Vinton  concerning  his  recent  sorrow,  and  was  comforted 
by  his  assurance  of  immortality  is  not  improbable,  nor  that  he 
accepted  Dr.  Vinton's  sermon  and  had  it  copied ;  but  the  scene 


208    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

as  finally  described  for  the  public  has  every  appearance  of 
being  much  colored. 

In  1883  Captain  Oldroyd  published  a  collection  of  Lincoln 
anecdotes  which  had  long  been  making,  most  of  them  good 
and  many  of  them  excellent,  but  some  of  them  resting  on 
very  dubitable  authority.  Among  those  of  this  class  was 
one  that  has  been  widely  quoted,  perhaps  most  widely  of  any 
in  his  book : 2 

"Shortly  before  his  death  an  Illinois  clergyman  asked 
Lincoln,  *  Do  you  love  Jesus  ?  '  Mr.  Lincoln  solemnly  replied : 
'When  I  left  Springfield  I  asked  the  people  to  pray  for  me. 
I  was  not  a  Christian.  When  I  buried  my  son,  the  severest 
trial  of  my  life,  I  was  not  a  Christian.  But  when  I  went  to 
Gettysburg  and  saw  the  graves  of  thousands  of  our  soldiers, 
I  then  and  there  consecrated  myself  to  Christ.  Yes,  I  do 
love  Jesus/ 

"  Reticent  as  he  was,  and  shy  of  discoursing  much  of  his 
own  mental  exercises,  these  few  utterances  now  have  a  value 
with  those  who  knew  him  which  his  dying  words  scarcely 
have  possessed." — Lincoln  Memorial  Albwm,  p.  105. 

Where  Captain  Oldroyd  obtained  this  incident  is  now 
not  known ;  probably  it  came  to  him  as  a  newspaper  clipping. 
It  bears  no  marks  that  commend  it  to  our  confidence.  We  are 
not  informed  who  this  Illinois  clergyman  was ;  there  may  not 
have  been  any  such  clergyman.  If  there  was, — 

2  This  incident  must  have  appeared  in  print  immediately  after  Lin 
coln's  death,  for  I  find  it  quoted  in  memorial  addresses  of  May,  1865. 
Mr.  Oldroyd  has  endeavored  to  learn  for  me  in  what  paper  he  found  it 
and  on  whose  authority  it  rests,  but  without  result.  He  does  not  re 
member  where  he  found  it.  It  is  inherently  improbable,  and  rests  on 
no  adequate  testimony.  It  ought  to  be  wholly  disregarded.  The  earliest 
reference  I  have  found  to  the  story  in  which  Lincoln  is  alleged  to  have 
said  to  an  unnamed  Illinois  minister  "  I  do  love  Jesus  "  is  in  a  sermon 
preached  in  the  Baptist  Church  of  Oshkosh,  Wisconsin,  April  19,  1865, 
by  Rev.  W.  W.  Whitcomb,  which  was  published  in  the  Oshkosh  North 
western,  April  21,  1865,  and  in  1907  issued  in  pamphlet  form  by  John  E. 
Burton.  The  form  of  quotation  is  indefinite,  but  I  judge  that  the  incident 
was  current  in  the  papers  of  that  week,  as  it  is  quoted  as  something 
with  which  the  congregation  was  assumed  to  be  familiar.  I  judge, 
therefore,  that  this  was  a  story  that  found  currency  immediately  after 
Lincoln's  death,  running  the  round  of  the  newspapers  with  no  one's 
name  attached. 


"  BEHIND  THE  SCENES  "  209 

"  E'en  ministers  they  hoe  been  kenned 

In  holy  rapture, 

A  rousing  whid  at  times  to  vend, 
And  nail  ft  wi'  Scripture" 

Mr.  Lincoln  made  many  references  to  God,  but  very  few 
to  Jesus,  and  then  not  by  name,  but  by  some  title,  as  "  the 
Saviour  of  the  World."  The  word  "  love  "  was  one  which 
he  almost  never  used.  That  he  should  have  said  to  a  man 
unnamed  "  I  do  love  Jesus  "  is  highly  improbable ;  and  the 
account  of  his  conversation  as  given  here  is  not  probable.  We 
gain  nothing  by  reliance  on  such  unsupported  allegations. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  AND  IN  THE  CLOSET 

THIS  part  of  our  inquiry  draws  near  its  close.  We  have 
reserved  for  this  chapter  a  selection  from  those  religious 
expressions  of  Abraham  Lincoln  which  belong  to  his  mature 
years,  and  which  are  indisputably  his.  They  are  largely  in 
addresses,  proclamations,  and  official  documents.  In  them 
religion  is,  as  a  rule,  an  incidental  subject.  But  it  finds  fre 
quent  expression. 

Here  no  literary  criticism  is  necessary,  for  there  is  no 
question  about  the  accuracy  of  the  report.  We  shall  quote 
nothing  that  is  not  contained  in  an  accredited  compilation  of 
Lincoln's  papers  or  addresses,  omitting  all  that  is  disputable 
or  open  to  the  suspicion  of  glossation  or  coloring  or  exag 
geration. 

There  is  only  one  question,  Was  Abraham  Lincoln  sincere 
in  these  utterances?  Did  he  speak  them  as  his  own  profound 
convictions,  or  because  he  was  expected  to  say  something 
of  this  sort,  and  took  refuge  in  pious  commonplaces?  Both 
statements  have  been  made  concerning  these  and  like  utter 
ances.  Let  us  read  them  with  an  open  mind  and  discover 
what  evidence  they  bear  of  their  own  sincerity. 

These  are  not  reports  of  private  conversations,  or  utter 
ances  addressed  to  small  groups.  These  are  the  words  which 
Lincoln  uttered  in  the  ears  of  all  men;  and  they  afford  some 
evidence  of  the  faith  that  was  in  him. 

In  Lincoln's  first  annual  Thanksgiving  Day  Proclamation, 
dated  October  3,  1863,  after  reciting  the  blessings  of  God  to 
the  nation  in  the  harvest  and  in  the  success  of  our  arms,  he 
said: 

210 


PROM  THE  HOUSETOPS 

"  No  human  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any  mortal 
hand  worked  out  these  great  things.  They  are  the  gracious 
gifts  of  the  Most  High  God,  who,  while  dealing  with  us  in 
anger  for  our  sins,  hath  nevertheless  remembered  mercy. 

"  It  has  seemed  to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they  should  be 
solemnly,  reverently,  and  gratefully  acknowledged  as  with  one 
heart  and  one  voice  by  the  American  people.  I  do,  therefore, 
invite  my  fellow  citizens  in  every  part  of  the  United  States, 
and  also  those  who  are  at  sea  and  those  who  are  sojourning 
in  foreign  lands,  to  set  apart  and  observe  the  last  Thursday 
of  November  next  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  our 
beneficent  Father  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens.  And  I 
recommend  to  them  that,  while  offering  up  the  ascriptions 
justly  due  Him  for  such  singular  deliverances  and  blessings, 
they  do  also,  with  humble  penitence  for  our  national  perverse- 
ness  and  disobedience,  commend  to  His  tender  care  all  those 
who  have  become  widows,  orphans,  mourners,  or  sufferers  in 
the  lamentable  civil  strife  in  which  we  are  unavoidably 
engaged,  and  fervently  implore  the  interposition  of  the 
Almighty  Hand  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  nation,  and  to 
restore  it,  as  soon  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  Divine  pur 
poses,  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  peace,  harmony,  tranquillity, 
and  union." 

In  the  summer  of  1864,  a  resolution  was  adopted  con 
currently  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  request 
ing  the  President  to  appoint  a  day  of  prayer,  Mr.  Lincoln 
issued  the  following  proclamation,  July  7,  1864,  in  which, 
after  quoting  the  words  of  the  resolution,  he  continued : 

"  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  cordially  concurring  with  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  in  the  penitential  and  pious  sentiments  expressed 
in  the  aforesaid  resolutions,  and  heartily  approving  of  the 
•devotional  design  and  purpose  thereof,  do  hereby  appoint  the 
first  Thursday  of  August  next  to  be  observed  by  the  people 
of  the  United  States  as  a  day  of  national  humiliation  and 
prayer. 

"  I  do  hereby  further  invite  and  request  the  heads  of 
.the  executive  departments  of  this  government,  together  with 


212     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

all  legislators,  all  judges  and  magistrates,  and  all  other  persons 
exercising  authority  in  the  land,  whether  civil,  military,  or 
naval,  and  all  soldiers,  seamen,  and  marines  in  the  national 
service  and  all  the  other  loyal  and  law-abiding  people  of  the 
United  States,  to  assemble  in  their  preferred  places  of  public 
worship  on  that  day,  and  there  and  then  to  render  to  the 
Almighty  and  merciful  Ruler  of  the  Universe  such  homages 
and  such  confessions,  and  to  offer  to  Him  such  supplications, 
as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  have,  in  their  aforesaid 
resolution,  so  solemnly,  so  earnestly,  and  so  reverently 
recommended." 

Mr.  Lincoln  issued  another  special  thanksgiving  proclama 
tion  on  May  9,  1864,  saying: 

"  Enough  is  known  of  army  operations  within  the  last 
five  days  to  claim  an  especial  gratitude  to  God,  while  what 
remains  undone  demands  our  most  sincere  prayers  to,  and 
reliance  upon,  Him  without  whom  all  human  effort  is  vain. 
I  recommend  that  all  patriots,  at  their  homes,  in  their  places 
of  public  worship,  and  wherever  they  may  be,  unite  in  common 
thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God." 

In  a  response  to  a  serenade  at  the  White  House,  on  May  9, 
1864,  following  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said: 

"  While  we  are  grateful  to  all  the  brave  men  and  officers 
for  the  events  of  the  past  few  days,  we  should,  above  all,  be 
very  grateful  to  Almighty  God,  who  gives  us  victory." 

May  1 8,  1864,  in  a  letter  of  reply  to  a  deputation  of  min 
isters  who  presented  to  him  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Metho 
dist  General  Conference,  he  said,  "  God  bless  the  Methodist 
Church — bless  all  the  churches — and  blessed  be  God,  who,  in 
this  our  great  trial  giveth  us  the  churches." 

In  a  letter  to  a  committee  consisting  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ide, 
Honorable  J.  R.  Doolittle,  and  Honorable  A.  Hubbell,  May 
30,  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  says: 


FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  213 

"  In  response  to  the  preamble  and  resolutions  of  the  Amer 
ican  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  which  you  did  me  the 
honor  to  present,  I  can  only  thank  you  for  thus  adding  to 
the  effective  and  almost  unanimous  support  which  the  Chris- 
tion  communities  are  so  zealously  giving  to  the  country,  and 
to  liberty.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  it  could  be 
otherwise  with  anyone  professing  Christianity,  or  even  having 
ordinary  perceptions  of  right  and  wrong.  To  read  the  Bible, 
as  the  word  of  God  Himself,  that  *  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
shalt  thou  eat  bread/  and  to  preach  therefrom  that,  '  In  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  faces  shalt  thou  eat  bread/  to  my  mind 
can  scarcely  be  reconciled  with  honest  sincerity.  When 
brought  to  my  final  reckoning  may  I  have  to  answer  for 
robbing  no  man  of  his  goods;  yet  more  tolerable  even  this, 
than  for  robbing  one  of  himself  and  all  that  was  his.  When, 
a  year  or  two  ago,  those  professedly  holy  men  of  the  South 
met  in  the  semblance  of  prayer  and  devotion,  and,  in  the  name 
of  Him  who  said,  '  As  ye  would  all  men  should  do  unto  you, 
do  ye  even  so  unto  them/  appealed  to  the  Christian  world 
to  aid  them  in  doing  to  a  whole  race  of  men  as  they  would 
have  no  man  do  unto  themselves,  to  my  thinking  they  con 
temned  and  insulted  God  and  His  church  far  more  than  did 
Satan  when  he  tempted  the  Saviour  with  the  kingdoms  of 
earth.  The  devil's  attempt  was  no  more  false,  and  far  less 
hypocritical.  But  let  me  forbear,  remembering  it  is  also 
written, '  Judge  not,  lest  ye  be  judged.' ' 

On  December  7,  1863,  in  making  announcement  of  Union 
success  in  East  Tennessee,  he  closed  as  follows :  "  I  recom 
mend  that  all  loyal  people  do,  on  receipt  of  this  information, 
assemble  at  their  places  of  worship  and  render  special  homage 
and  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  His  great  advancement 
of  the  national  cause." 

His  Third  Annual  Message  to  Congress,  December  8,  1863, 
began:  "  Another  year  of  health,  and  of  sufficiently  abundant 
harvests,  has  passed.  For  these,  and  especially  for  the  im 
proved  condition  of  our  national  affairs,  our  renewed  and 
profoundest  gratitude  to  God  is  due." 


214     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

After  the  capture  of  Mobile  and  Atlanta,  on  September  3, 
1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  his  fourth  special  thanksgiving 
proclamation,  calling  on  all  people  to  offer  thanksgiving  to  God 
"  for  His  mercy  in  preserving  our  national  existence  " ;  and 
also  "  that  prayer  be  made  for  divine  protection  to  our  soldiers 
and  their  leaders  in  the  field,  who  have  so  often  and  so  gal 
lantly  periled  their  lives  in  battling  with  the  enemy;  and 
for  blessings  and  comforts  from  the  Father  of  Mercies  to  the 
sick,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  and  to  the  orphans  and  widows 
of  those  who  have  fallen  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and 
that  He  will  continue  to  uphold  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  against  all  the  effects  of  public  enemies  and  secret  foes." 

He  issued  a  proclamation  calling  for  thanksgiving  for  vic 
tories,  July  15,  1863: 

"  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  hearken  to  the  suppli 
cation  and  prayers  of  an  afflicted  people,  and  to  vouchsafe 
to  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  victories  on  land 
and  on  sea  so  signal  and  so  effective  as  to  furnish  reasonable 
grounds  for  augmented  confidence  that  the  union  of  these 
States  will  be  maintained,  their  Constitution  preserved,  and 
their  peace  and  prosperity  permanently  restored.  But  these 
victories  have  been  accorded  not  without  sacrifice  of  life, 
limb,  health,  and  liberty,  incurred  by  brave,  loyal,  and  patriotic 
citizens.  Domestic  affliction  in  every  part  of  the  country 
follows  in  the  train  of  these  fearful  bereavements.  It  is  meet 
and  right  to  recognize  and  confess  the  presence  of  the  Almighty 
Father  and  the  power  of  His  hand  equally  in  these  triumphs 
and  in  these  sorrows. 

"  Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I  do  set  apart  Thurs 
day,  the  6th  day  of  August  next,  to  be  observed  as  a  day  of 
national  thanksgiving,  praise,  and  prayer,  and  I  invite  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  assemble  on  that  occasion  in 
their  customary  places  of  worship,  and,  in  the  forms  approved 
by  their  own  consciences,  render  the  homage  due  to  the  Divine 
Majesty  for  the  wonderful  things  He  has  done  in  the  nation's 
behalf,  and  invoke  the  influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit  to  subdue 


FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  215 

the  anger  which  has  produced  and  so  long  sustained  a  needless 
and  cruel  rebellion,  to  change  the  hearts  of  the  insurgents,  to 
guide  the  counsels  of  the  government  with  wisdom  adequate 
to  so  great  a  national  emergency,  and  to  visit  with  tender  care 
and  consolation  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land 
all  those  who,  through  the  vicissitudes  of  marches,  voyages, 
battles,  and  sieges,  have  been  brought  to  suffer  in  mind,  body, 
or  estate,  and  finally  to  lead  the  whole  nation  through  the 
paths  of  repentance  and  submission  to  the  Divine  Will  back 
to  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  union  and  fraternal  peace." 

On  March  30,  1863,  President  Lincoln  issued  a  proclama 
tion  appointing  another  national  fast-day.  It  reads  as 
follows : 

"  Whereas,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  devoutly  rec 
ognizing  the  supreme  authority  and  just  government  of  Al 
mighty  God  in  all  the  affairs  of  men  and  of  nations  has  by  a 
resolution  requested  the  President  to  designate  and  set  apart 
a  day  for  national  prayer  and  humiliation: 

"  And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as  of  men 
to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overruling  power  of  God; 
to  confess  their  sins  and  transgressions  in  humble  sorrow,  yet 
with  assured  hope  that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy 
and  pardon ;  and  to  recognize  the  sublime  truth,  announced  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  proven  by  all  history,  that  those 
nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is  the  Lord: 

"  And  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  His  divine  law  nations, 
like  individuals,  are  subject  to  punishments  and  chastisements 
in  this  world,  and  may  we  not  justly  fear  that  the  awful 
calamity  of  civil  war  which  now  desolates  the  land  may  be 
but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  presumptuous 
sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our  national  reformation  as  a 
whole  people?  We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest 
bounties  of  Heaven.  We  have  been  preserved  these  many 
years  in  peace  and  prosperity.  We  have  grown  in  numbers, 
wealth,  and  power  as  no  other  nation  has  ever  grown;  but 
we  have  forgotten  God.  We  have  forgotten  the  gracious  hand 
which  preserved  us  in  peace,  and  multiplied  and  enriched  and 
strengthened  us ;  and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in  the  deceit- 


216     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

fulness  of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings  were  produced 
by  some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  own.  Intoxicated 
with  unbroken  success,  we  have  become  too  self-sufficient  to 
feel  the  necessity  of  redeeming  and  preserving  grace,  too 
proud  to  pray  to  the  God  who  made  us: 

"  It  behooves  us,  then,  to  humble  ourselves  before  the 
offended  Power,  and  confess  our  national  sins,  and  to  pray 
for  clemency  and  forgiveness : 

"  Now,  therefore,  in  compliance  with  the  request  and  fully 
concurring  in  the  views  of  the  Senate,  I  do  by  this  my  procla 
mation  designate  and  set  apart  Thursday,  the  3Oth  day  of 
April,  1863,  as  a  day  of  national  humiliation,  fasting,  and 
prayer.  And  I  do  hereby  request  all  the  people  to  abstain  on 
that  day  from  their  ordinary  secular  pursuits,  and  to  unite 
at  their  several  places  of  public  worship  and  their  respective 
homes  in  keeping  the  day  holy  to  the  Lord,  and  devoted  to 
the  humble  discharge  of  the  religious  duties  proper  to  that 
solemn  occasion.  All  this  being  done  in  sincerity  and  truth, 
let  us  then  rest  humbly  in  the  hope  authorized  by  divine  teach 
ings,  that  the  united  cry  of  the  nation  will  be  heard  on  high, 
and  answered  with  blessings  no  less  than  the  pardon  of  our 
national  sins,  and  the  restoration  of  our  now  divided  and 
suffering  country  to  its  former  happy  condition  of  unity  and 
peace." 

In  1863  Washington's  Birthday  occurred  on  Sunday, 
and  Rev.  Alexander  Reed,  superintendent  of  the  United  States 
Christian  Commission,  invited  Mr.  Lincoln  to  preside  at  a 
meeting  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  that  day.  In 
reply  Mr.  Lincoln  said :  "  Whatever  shall  be  sincerely,  and 
in  God's  name,  devised  for  the  good  of  the  soldier  and  sea 
man  in  their  hard  spheres  of  duty,  can  scarcely  fail  to  be 
blest.  .  .  .  The  birthday  of  Washington  and  the  Christian 
Sabbath  coinciding  this  year,  and  suggesting  together  the 
highest  interests  of  this  life  and  of  that  to  come,  is  most 
propitious  for  the  meeting  proposed." 

January  5,  1863,  in  reply  to  a  letter,  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
the  following: 


FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  217 

"  It  is  most  cheering  and  encouraging  for  me  that  in  the 
efforts  which  I  have  made  and  am  making  for  the  restoration 
of  a  righteous  peace  for  our  country,  I  am  upheld  and  sustained 
by  the  good  wishes  and  prayers  of  God's  people.  No  one  is 
more  deeply  than  myself  aware  that  without  His  favor  our 
highest  wisdom  is  but  as  foolishness  and  that  our  most  stren 
uous  efforts  Would  avail  nothing  in  the  shadow  of  His  dis 
pleasure." 

"  I  am  conscious  of  no  desire  for  my  country's  welfare 
that  is  not  in  consonance  with  His  will,  and  no  plan  upon 
which  we  may  not  ask  His  blessing.  It  seems  to  me  that  if 
there  be  one  subject  upon  which  all  good  men  may  unitedly 
agree,  it  is  imploring  the  gracious  favor  of  the  God  of  Nations 
upon  the  struggles  our  people  are  making  for  the  preservation 
of  their  precious  birthright  of  civil  and  religious  liberty." 

Second  Annual  Message  to  Congress,  December  i,  1862: 

"  While  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless  us  with 
a  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on,  guided  by  the  best  light 
He  gives  us,  trusting  that  in  His  own  good  time  and  wise  way 
all  will  be  well." 

Reply  to  a  committee  of  colored  people  who  presented  him 
with  a  Bible,  September  4,  1864: 

"  This  occasion  would  seem  fitting  for  a  lengthy  response 
to  the  address  which  you  have  just  made.  I  would  make  one 
if  prepared;  but  I  am  not.  I  would  promise  to  respond  in 
writing  had  not  experience  taught  me  that  business  will  not 
allow  me  to  do  so.  I  can  only  say  now,  as  I  have  often 
before  said,  it  has  always  been  a  sentiment  with  me  that  all 
mankind  should  be  free.  So  far  as  able,  within  my  sphere,  I 
have  always  acted  as  I  believe  to  be  right  and  just;  and  I  have 
done  all  I  could  for  the  good  of  mankind  generally.  In 
letters  and  documents  sent  from  this  office,  I  have  expressed 
myself  better  than  I  now  can. 

"  In  regard  to  this  great  Book,  I  have  but  to  say,  it  is  the 
best  gift  God  has  given  to  man.  All  the  good  Saviour  gave 
to  the  world  was  communicated  through  this  Book.  But  for 


218    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

it  we  could  not  know  right  from  wrong.  All  things  most 
desirable  for  man's  welfare,  here  and  hereafter,  are  to  be 
found  portrayed  in  it.  To  you  I  return  my  most  sincere 
thanks  for  this  very  elegant  copy  of  the  great  Book  of  God 
which  you  present." — Complete  Works  of  Lincoln  by  John 
G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay.  New  and  Enlarged  Edition, 
Twelve  Volumes.  New  York :  Francis  D.  Tandy  Company, 
1905,  X,  217-18. 

Compiling  these  and  kindred  passages  from  his  authentic 
works,  his  two  secretaries,  Nicolay  and  Hay,  were  impressed 
anew  with  the  manifest  sincerity  and  deep  religious  conviction 
which  they  expressed.  Commenting  upon  these  as  a  whole, 
and  having  particularly  in  mind  certain  stories  which  given 
to  the  public  could  not,  from  their  date  and  nature,  have 
been  mere  conventional  expressions,  and  others  so  manifestly 
personal  that  no  consideration  of  the  public  opinion  could 
have  had  any  weight  with  him,  they  said : 

"  He  was  a  man  of  profound  and  intense  religious  feeling. 
We  have  no  purpose  of  attempting  to  formulate  his  creed :  we 
question  if  he  himself  ever  did  so.  There  have  been  swift 
witnesses  who,  judging  from  expressions  uttered  in  his  callow 
youth,  have  called  him  an  atheist;  and  others  who,  with  the 
most  laudable  intentions,  have  remembered  improbable  con 
versations  which  they  bring  forward  to  prove  at  once  his 
orthodoxy  and  their  own  intimacy  with  him.  But  leaving 
aside  these  apocryphal  endeavors,  we  have  only  to  look  at  his 
authentic  public  and  private  utterances  to  see  how  deep  and 
strong  in  all  the  latter  part  of  his  life  was  the  current  of  his 
religious  thought  and  emotion.  He  continually  invited  and 
appreciated,  at  their  highest  value,  the  prayers  of  good  people. 
The  pressure  of  the  tremendous  problems  by  which  he  was  sur 
rounded;  the  awful  moral  significance  of  the  conflict  in  which 
he  was  the  chief  combatant;  the  overwhelming  sense  of  per 
sonal  responsibility  which  never  left  him  for  an  hour — air 
contributed  to  produce,  in  a  temperament  naturally  serious- 
and  predisposed  to  a  spiritual  view  of  life  and  conduct,  a 
sense  of  reverent  acceptance  of  the  guidance  of  a  superior 
Power.  From  the  morning  when,  standing  amid  the  falling 


FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  219 

snowflakes  in  the  railway  car  at  Springfield,  he  asked  the 
prayers  of  his  neighbors  in  those  touching  phrases  whose 
echo  rose  that  night  in  invocations  from  thousands  of  family 
altars,  to  that  memorable  hour  when  on  the  steps  of  the  Cap 
itol  he  humbled  himself  before  his  Creator  in  the  sublime 
words  of  the  Second  Inaugural,  there  is  not  an  expression 
known  to  have  come  from  his  lips  or  pen  but  proves  that  he 
held  himself  answerable  in  every  act  of  his  career  to  a  more 
august  tribunal  than  any  on  earth.  The  fact  that  he  was  not 
a  communicant  of  any  church,  and  that  he  was  singularly 
reserved  in  regard  to  his  personal  religious  life,  gives  only 
the  greater  force  to  these  striking  proofs  of  his  profound 
reverence  and  faith. 

"  In  final  substantiation  of  this  assertion,  we  subjoin  two 
papers  from  the  hand  of  the  President,  one  official  and  the 
other  private,  which  bear  within  themselves  the  imprint  of  a 
sincere  devotion  and  a  steadfast  reliance  upon  the  power  and 
benignity  of  an  overruling  Providence.  The  first  is  an  order 
which  he  issued  on  the  i6th  of  November,  1864,  in  the 
observance  of  Sunday. 

Lincoln's  Sunday  Rest  Order,  November  15,  1862: 

"  The  President,  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the  Sab 
bath  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the  military  and  naval  service. 
The  importance  for  man  and  beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly 
rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors,  a 
becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiments  of  a  Christian 
people,  and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine  Will,  demand  that 
Sunday  labor  in  the  army  and  navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure 
of  strict  necessity. 

"  The  discipline  and  character  of  the  national  forces  should 
not  suffer,  nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled  by  the 
profanation  of  the  day  or  name  of  the  Most  High.  '  At  this 
time  of  public  distress ' — adopting  the  words  of  Washington 
in  1776— 'men  may  find  enough  to  do  in  the  service  of  God 
and  their  Country  without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and 


220     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

immorality.'  The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father  of 
his  Country,  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  indicates 
the  spirit  in  which  our  institutions  were  founded  and  should 
ever  be  defended.  *  The  General  hopes  and  trusts  that  every 
officer  and  man  will  endeavor  to  live  and  act  as  becomes  a 
Christian  soldier  defending  the  dearest  rights  and  liberties  of 
his  country.' ' 

"  The  date  of  this  remarkable  order  leaves  no  possibility 
for  the  insinuation  that  it  sprang  from  any  political  purposes 
or  intention.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  just  been  re-elected  by  an 
overwhelming  majority;  his  own  personal  popularity  was 
unbounded;  there  was  no  temptation  for  hypocrisy  or  deceit. 
There  is  no  explanation  of  the  order  except  that  it  was  the 
offspring  of  sincere  convictions. 

"  But  if  it  may  be  said  that  this  was,  after  all,  an  exoteric 
utterance  springing  from  those  relations  of  religion  and 
good  government  which  the  wisest  rulers  have  always  recog 
nized  in  their  intercourse  with  the  people,  we  will  give  another 
document  of  which  nothing  of  the  sort  can  be  said.  It  is  a 
paper  which  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  in  September,  1862,  while  his 
mind  was  burdened  with  the  weightiest  question  of  his  life, — 
the  weightiest  with  which  this  country  has  had  to  grapple. 
Wearied  with  all  the  considerations  of  law  and  of  expediency 
with  which  he  had  been  struggling  for  two  years,  he  retired 
within  himself  and  tried  to  bring  some  order  into  his  thoughts 
by  rising  above  the  wrangling  of  men  and  parties,  and  ponder 
ing  the  relations  of  human  government  to  the  Divine.  In 
this  frame  of  mind,  absolutely  detached  from  any  earthly 
considerations,  he  wrote  this  meditation.  It  has  never  been 
published.  It  was  not  written  to  be  seen  of  men.  It  was 
penned  in  the  awful  sincerity  of  a  perfectly  honest  soul  trying 
to  bring  himself  into  closer  communion  with  its  Maker. 

Meditation  on  the  Divine  will,  September  [30],  1862: 

"The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests  each  party 
claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God.  Both 
may  be,  and  one  must  be,  wrong.  God  cannot  be  for  and 
against  the  same  thing  at  the  same  time.  In  the  present  Civil 


FROM  THE  HOUSETOPS  221 

War  it  is  quite  possible  that  God's  purpose  is  something 
different  from  the  purpose  of  either  party;  and  yet  the  best 
instrumentalities,  working  just  as  they  do,  are  of  the  best 
adaptation  to  effect  His  purpose.  I  am  almost  ready  to  say 
that  this  is  probably  true:  that  God  wills  this  contest,  and 
wills  that  it  shall  not  end  yet.  By  His  mere  great  power  on  the 
minds  of  the  now  contestants  He  could  have  saved  or  destroyed 
the  Union  without  a  human  contest.  Yet  the  contest  began. 
And,  having  begun,  He  could  give  the  final  victory  to  either 
side  any  day.  Yet  the  contest  proceeds." — NICOLAY  AND 
HAY,  Life  of  Lincoln,  Century,  August,  1889.  Vol.  35, 
pp.  567-68. 


PART  III:  THE  RELIGION  OF  LINCOLN 


PART  III:  THE  RELIGION  OF  LINCOLN 

CHAPTER  XX 
WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT 

IT  is  amazing  to  discover  how  many  forms  of  faith  and  non- 
faith  have  claimed  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  Seven  cities  strove  for  Homer,  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread." 

More  than  seven  churches  have  striven  for  the  dead 
Abraham  Lincoln,  some  of  whom  would  not  even  now  admit 
to  their  membership  a  living  man  who  professed  his  sentiments. 

Before  we  undertake  the  difficult  task  of  assessing  the  real 
faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  let  us  dispose  of  a  few  of  the  claims 
that  have  been  made  on  his  behalf,  or  the  charges  that  have 
been  made  against  him,  and  which  clearly  have  no  sufficient 
weight  of  evidence.  Let  us  ask  first, 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  an  atheist ? 

Herndon  declared  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  "  sometimes 
bordering  on  atheism."  This  last  phrase  has  been  over 
strained.  What  Herndon  appears  to  have  meant  was  that 
in  some  of  Lincoln's  blackest  hours  of  gloom  his  mind  hung 
over  that  utter  void ;  and  he  more  than  hints  that  in  such  hours 
Lincoln's  mind  was  scarcely  sound.  Herndon  was  far  from 
believing  or  meaning  to  charge  that  atheism  was  Lincoln's  real 
view  of  God  and  the  world.  The  contrary  is  shown  in  a 
score  of  places  in  Herndon's  works  and  letters. 

Some  years  ago  the  Open  Court  of  Chicago  contained  an 
article  by  Theodore  Stanton,  quoted  from  the  Westminster 
Review.  It  said : 

225 


226     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"  That  Lincoln  was  an  orthodox  Christian  nobody  pretends 
to  assert.  But  his  friends  and  biographers  differ  as  to  how 
much  of  a  Christian  he  was.  If  Lincoln  had  lived  and  died 
an  obscure  Springfield  lawyer  and  politician,  he  would  unques 
tionably  have  been  classed  by  his  neighbors  among  free 
thinkers.  But  as  is  customary  with  the  Church,  whether 
Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant,  when  Lincoln  became  one  of 
the  great  of  the  world,  an  attempt  was  made  to  claim  him. 
.  .  .  The  shrewd  politician  who  has  not  an  elastic  con 
science — and  that  was  Lincoln's  case — simply  keeps  mum  on 
religious  subjects,  or,  when  he  must  touch  on  the  subject, 
deals  only  in  platitudes,  and  this  is  just  what  Lincoln  did. 
Lincoln  thought  little  on  religious  subjects,  and  read  less. 
That,  when  left  to  himself,  he  was  quite  indifferent  to  religion, 
is  frequently  evident  in  the  acts  of  his  life." — Open  Court, 
September  24,  1891,  pp.  2962-63,  quoting  Westminster  Review 
of  September,  1890. 

This  statement  was  not  sufficiently  radical  for  one  reader 
of  the  Open  Court,  who  thought  that  Mr.  Stanton  had  made 
Lincoln  out  to  have  been  virtually  an  agnostic,  and  who  wished 
to  prove  him  an  atheist.  He  wrote  an  article  in  which  he  said : 

"Free-thinker  means  anything  or  nothing.  .  .  .  Plain 
words  are  the  best.  That  Lincoln  was  A-theos  connotes  a 
definite  attitude  toward  the  great  religious  chimera,  and  really 
defines  Mr.  Lincoln's  position  more  closely  than  any  of  Mr. 
Stanton's  epithets  [as,  e.g.,  Agnostic].  It  is  positive,  not 
negative,  indicates  what  the  man  professedly  was  rather  than 
what  he  was  not  or  what  he  oppugned.  We  are  in  position 
to  define  his  life-creed  with  all  due  measure  of  exactness." — 
"What  Was  Abraham  Lincoln's  Creed?"  by  George  M. 
McCrie,  Open  Court,  November  26,  1891. 

This  writer  then  proceeded  to  define  Mr.  Lincoln's  creed 
in  terms  of  atheism.  But  his  argument  was  based  on  a  sub 
jective  scheme  of  philosophy,  a  kind  of  Hylo-Idealism  derived 
from  Hegel  more  than  from  Lincoln,  and  one  which  it  is  safe 
to  affirm  Lincoln  would  neither  have  admitted  nor  even 
understood. 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  227 

Some  time  after,  the  same  journal  had  a  third  and  very 
different  article,  which  said : 

"  Lincoln  was  an  extremely  religious  man,  though  not  a 
technical  Christian.  He  thought  deeply,  and  his  opinions 
were  positive.  His  seriousness  was  a  characteristic  trait, 
showing  itself  even  in  his  genuine  good  humor.  His  very 
jokes  were  a  part  of  his  seriousness.  .  .  .  Lincoln  was  an 
extremely  practical  man.  He  believed  not  for  belief's  sake, 
but  for  his  own  sake.  He  made  a  practice  of  religion;  he 
used  it.  His  religion  was  his  life,  and  his  life  was  his  religious 
service.  It  was  his  own  public  profession.  Religion  was  a 
fact  to  him.  He  believed  in  prayer,  because  he  found  use  for 
it:  and  when  the  fate  of  the  Union  seemed  to  waver,  when 
doubt  and  despair  hovered  over  the  land  and  the  future  was 
uncertain,  Lincoln  often  shut  himself  within  his  room  and 
offered  up  his  prayer  to  God.  '  So,  many  times/  he  said,  '  I 
was  forced  to  my  knees,  not  knowing  where  else  to  go/ 

"  While  there  is  considerable  in  his  writings  to  indicate 
a  strong  faith  in  God  and  prayer,  there  is  little  to  indicate 
his  beliefs  regarding  Christ,  the  Bible,  etc.  But  the  very 
absence  of  anything  on  those  points  is  good  evidence  that  he 
did  not  hold  the  views  that  have  been  attributed  to  him.  .  .  . 

"  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  *  great  and  good  and  merci 
ful  God/  but  not  in  a  revengeful  or  cruel  God  who  could 
consign  them  to  an  eternal  hell  when  nothing  good  to  those 
who  suffered  could  possibly  come  from  such  punishment. 
He  believed  in  and  used  prayer  as  a  means  to  bring  himself 
in  closer  relations  with  right  in  everything.  .  .  .  He  believed 
in  '  universal  inspiration  and  miracles  under  law/  and  that 
all  things,  both  matter  and  mind,  are  governed  by  law.  He 
believed  that  all  creation  is  an  evolution  under  law,  not  a 
special  creation  of  the  Supreme  Being.  He  hoped  for  a 
joyous  meeting  in  the  world  to  come  with  many  loved  ones 
gone  before.  He  believed  that  Christianity  consists  in  being, 
not  believing;  in  loving  '  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself/  He  believed  that  the  Bible  is 
a  book  to  be  understood  and  appreciated  as  any  other  book, 
not  merely  to  be  accepted  as  a  divine  creation  of  infallibility. 
He  believed  in  the  man  Christ,  not  in  the  God  Christ.  .  .  . 
He  was  once  an  admirer  of  Volney,  Paine,  and  Voltaire ;  later 


228     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

of  Theodore  Parker,  Emerson,  and  Channing.  He  was  once 
a  scoffer  of  religion;  later  a  supporter." — R.  C.  ROPER,  Re 
ligious  Beliefs  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Open  Court,  1903, 
pp.  76-85. 

Whatever  Abraham  Lincoln  was,  he  was  not  an  atheist. 
If  any  other  convenient  term  were  to  be  applied  to  him,  it 
would  be  necessary  that  the  term  itself  should  be  defined. 
Thus,  Lyman  Abbott  has  spoken  of  Lincoln  as  an  agnostic, 
meaning  that  Lincoln  did  not  find  himself  in  position  to  affirm 
dogmatically  on  certain  of  the  articles  of  faith.  This  article 
by  Dr.  Abbott  was  particularly  illuminating  as  discriminating 
between  the  measure  of  uncertainty  which  a  man  may  feel 
in  the  matter  of  positive  declaration  of  his  views,  while  cher 
ishing  in  his  heart  and  manifesting  in  his  life  the  essentials 
of  a  Christian  faith.  It  was  published  as  an  editorial  in 
reply  to  a  letter  of  inquiry,  and  both  are  worth  reprinting 
entire : 

"  '  My  dear  Dr.  Abbott :  You  are  quoted  in  the  New  York 
Press  of  October  15  as  having  referred  in  your  Yale  sermon 
to  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  following  terms:  "Agnostic 
though  he  was."  Are  you  correct  in  the  implication?  If  so, 
I  should  greatly  like  to  know,  as  it  is  a  subject  in  which  I  am 
much  interested.  J.  G.  Holland  says,  in  his  Life  of  Lincoln, 
page  61  ff.,  "  He  believed  in  God,  and  in  His  personal  super 
vision  of  the  affairs  of  men.  .  .  .  This  unwavering  faith 
in  a  divine  Providence  began  at  his  mother's  knee,  and  ran 
like  a  thread  of  gold  through  all  the  inner  experiences  of  his 
life  " ;  and  much  more  to  the  same  purpose.  You  are  doubtless 
familiar  with  his  words  on  leaving  Springfield  for  Washing 
ton:  "He  [Washington]  would  never  have  succeeded  except 
for  the  aid  of  divine  Providence  upon  which  he  at  all  times 
relied.  On  that  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance. 
Pray  that  I  may  receive  that  divine  assistance  without  which 
I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is  certain."  The 
first  inaugural  would  seem  to  indicate  a  most  pronounced 
Christian  sentiment.  Not  to  consume  too  much  of  your  time, 
I  might  refer  further  to  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Life,  the  following 
passages:  Vol.  VI,  p.  539,  which  contains  a  statement  of 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  229 

Lincoln's  religious  principles;  also,  same  volume,  pp.  323,  324, 
327,  328,  34i,  342.  R.  A.  A.' ' 


To  this  letter  Dr.  Abbott  replied : 

"  The  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  appears  to  me  to  furnish 
a  very  striking  illustration  both  of  the  difference  between 
theology  and  religion  and  of  the  way  in  which  religious 
experience  is  often  developed  in  the  life  of  a  true  man,  and  is 
accompanied  by  a  real  though  generally  quite  unconscious 
change  in  theological  opinion.  Mr.  Herndon,  in  his  Life  of 
Lincoln,  portrays  the  earlier  religious  faith  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
Nicolay  and  Hay  his  later  religious  faith :  neither  biographer 
is  able  to  find  that  he  ever  formulated  his  own  creed,  neither 
is  able  to  formulate  one  for  him.  Yet  between  the  religious 
convictions  of  the  period  when  he  wrote  an  essay  against 
Christianity,  which,  fortunately  for  his  reputation,  a  wise 
friend  threw  into  the  fire,  and  the  period  when  he  wrote  his 
second  inaugural  address,  there  is  a  difference  which  cannot 
be  measured  by  the  mere  lapse  of  years. 

"  Agnostic  ?  What  is  an  agnostic  ?  Huxley  invented  the 
phrase  to  define  his  own  position  in  contrast  with  that  of 
his  friends  whom  he  called  gnostics  because  they  had  each 
a  theory  of  the  universe  and  he  had  none.  He  more  specifi 
cally  defines  the  basis  of  his  no-theory  of  the  universe  in  a 
pathetic  letter  to  Charles  Kingsley  (Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  233-239) :  '  It  is  no  use  to  talk  to  me  of  analogies  and 
probabilities.  I  know  what  I  mean  when  I  say  I  believe  in 
the  law  of  the  inverse  squares,  and  I  will  not  rest  my  lifelong 
hopes  upon  weaker  convictions.  I  dare  not,  if  I  would/  Com 
pare  with  this  Mr.  Herndon's  measure  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  earlier 
habit  of  thought :  '  As  already  expressed,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no 
faith.  In  order  to  believe,  he  must  see  and  feel,  and  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  place.  He  must  taste,  smell,  or  handle  before 
he  had  faith  or  even  belief/  Or  compare  Mrs.  Lincoln's 
expression  concerning  her  husband's  religious  opinions,  as 
quoted  by  Mr.  Herndon :  *  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  faith  and  no 
hope,  in  the  usual  acceptance  of  those  words.  He  never  joined 
a  church;  but  still,  as  I  believe,  he  was  a  religious  man  by 
nature.  He  first  seemed  to  think  about  the  subject  when  our 


230    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Willie  died,  and  then  more  than  ever  about  the  time  .he  went 
to  Gettysburg;  but  it  was  a  kind  of  poetry  in  his  nature; 
and  he  was  never  a  technical  Christian/ 

"  Religion  is  always  a  kind  of  poetry.  Faith  is  kin  to 
imagination ;  both  faith  and  imagination  look  upon  the  unseen 
and  refuse  to  base  life  merely  upon  the  senses  or  upon  mathe 
matical  formularies  like  the  law  of  the  inverse  squares.  This 
poetry  is  often  quite  dissociated  from  philosophy,  or  is  even 
inconsistent  with  the  philosophy  which  the  individual  enter 
tains.  But  Mr.  Lincoln's  early  philosophy  prepared  for  his 
later  religious  experience.  Mr.  Herndon  reports  him  as  say 
ing  :  '  There  are  no  accidents  in  my  philosophy.  The  past 
is  the  cause  of  the  present,  and  the  present  will  be  the  cause 
of  the  future.  All  these  are  links  in  the  endless  chain  stretch 
ing  from  the  Infinite  to  the  finite/  With  this  philosophy  of 
fatalism  was  a  profound  faith  in  justice,  a  profound  reverence 
for  it,  and  an  uncompromising  obedience  to  it.  At  first  he  did 
not  put  this  philosophy  and  this  faith  together.  He  who  does 
put  them  together,  that  is,  he  who  infuses  this  philosophy  in 
an  overruling  cause  with  this  faith,  which  is  a  '  kind  of 
poetry,'  in  the  supremacy  of  righteousness,  comes  to  a  faith 
in  a  righteous  God,  who  deserves  our  reverence,  not  because 
he  is  great,  but  because  he  is  good. 

"  When  Abraham  Lincoln  began  to  feel  the  burden  of 
the  nation  resting  upon  him,  and  felt  it  too  great  a  burden  for 
him  to  carry  unaided,  he  wanted  the  sympathy  of  all  men  and 
women  in  the  country  who  with  him  believed  in  a  Power  direct 
ing  the  course  of  human  history  greater  than  the  actors  in  it, 
and  who  also  believed  in  eternal  justice;  and  he  asked  their 
prayers.  As  the  conflict  went  on  and  the  burden  grew  heavier 
and  heavier,  his  faith  in  righteousness  more  and  more  infused 
his  belief  in  a  superhuman  power  and  transformed  it  into  a 
belief  in  a  righteous  God ;  but  it  was,  till  the  last,  a  belief  in  a 
God  of  justice  rather  than  a  Christ  of  pity,  even  as  it  phrased 
itself  in  that  most  religious  utterance  of  his  life,  his  second 
inaugural :  '  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if 
God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall 
be  paid  with  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  231 

thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "  The  judgments 
of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

"  There  is  no  evidence  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  become  a 
gnostic,  or  that  he  had  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  the  universe, 
or  that  he  had  either  wrought  out  a  system  of  theology  for 
himself  or  accepted  any  that  had  been  wrought  out  by  others; 
but  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  he  had  learned  in  the  four 
years  of  tragedy  a  lesson  of  dependence  and  trust,  that  he  had 
insensibly  put  together  his  belief  in  a  supreme  Power  and  his 
faith  in  righteousness,  and  that  thus  there  had  been  born  in 
him  faith  in  a  supreme  righteous  Power,  whose  will  we  may 
help  to  carry  out,  and  on  whose  wisdom  and  strength  we  may 
rely  in  achieving  it.  It  is  thus  that  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  illustrates  both  how  a  reverent  agnostic  may  be  deeply 
religious  and  how  the  life  of  service  and  self-sacrifice  leads 
through  doubt  to  faith. — L.  A." — The  Outlook,  November  17, 
1906. 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Roman  Catholic f 

The  question  is  absurd,  and  worth  asking  only  that  it  may 
receive  a  simple  negative  answer.  Yet,  singularly,  a  report 
was  current  and  somewhat  widely  believed  in  1860  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  baptized  as  a  Roman  Catholic 
and  was  himself  a  renegade  from  that  faith.  The  rumor 
appears  to  have  had  two  roots.  First  was  the  fact  that 
much  missionary  work  was  done  in  early  Illinois  by  Jesuit 
priests ;  and  it  was  assumed,  not  only  contrary  to  every  fact 
but  to  every  element  of  probability,  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
had  been  baptized  by  one  of  them.  The  other  was  the  fact 
that  he  acted  as  attorney  for  Rev.  Charles  Chiniquy,  who 
after  fifty  years  in  the  Church  of  Rome  came  out  from  that 
communion  and  became  a  notable  antagonist  of  the  church  in 
which  he  had  been  reared.  His  unsparing  criticisms  led  to 
various  attacks  upon  him  through  the  courts  and  otherwise. 
When  Lincoln  was  elected  President  much  was  made  of  the 
fact  that  Lincoln  had  been  Father  Chiniquy 's  attorney,  and 
the  rumor  that  he  also  was  a  renegade  Catholic  gained  wide 
currency. 

Chiniquy  professed  to  see  in  these  rumors  a  peril  to  the 


232     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

life  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  both  then  and  at  intervals  during 
his  administration  warned  the  President  that  his  life  was  in 
danger.  The  scarcely  concealed  favor  of  the  Vatican  toward 
the  cause  of  the  South  did  not  tend  to  allay  this  anxiety. 
The  fact  that  among  those  concerned  in  the  plot  which  finally 
ended  in  the  assassination  of  the  President  were  several 
Roman  Catholics,  revived  these  reports  immediately  after  his 
death,  and  they  are  occasionally  recalled  even  now. 

So  far  as  our  present  inquiry  is  concerned,  we  have  only 
to  ask  and  answer  the  question.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  in  any 
period  of  his  life  affiliated  in  any  way  with  the  Roman  Cath 
olic  Church. 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Spiritualist? 

During  Mr.  Lincoln's  occupancy  of  the  White  House, 
there  were  several  rumors  to  the  effect  that  President  and 
Mrs.  Lincoln  were  both  Spiritualists.  A  definite  claim  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  fully  believed  in  Spiritualism  was  set  forth  in 
1891  by  a  medium  named  Mrs.  Nettie  Colburn  Maynard.  She 
wrote  a  book  relating  in  detail  almost  innumerable  sittings 
which  she  alleged  were  attended  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln. 
According  to  her  story  her  mediumship  began  in  her  child 
hood  in  1845.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  she  was  lecturing 
and  giving  public  seances  and  went  to  Washington  to  gain  a 
furlough  for  her  brother.  She  learned  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
interest  in  Spiritualism,  and  of  the  visits  to  the  White  House 
of  two  mediums,  Charles  Colchester  and  Charles  Foster. 
She  was  invited  to  the  White  House,  where,  if  we  are  to 
credit  her  story,  she  imparted  to  Mr.  Lincoln  very  nearly  all 
the  wisdom  which  he  possessed  during  the  period  of  the 
Civil  War. 

We  learn  from  other  sources  that  Lincoln  permitted  two 
or  three  mediums  to  come  to  the  White  House  and  to  tell  him 
what  the  spirits  said  he  ought  to  know;  but  Lincoln  said  of 
them  that  the  advice  of  the  spirits,  as  thus  received,  was  as 
contradictory  as  the  voices  of  his  own  Cabinet,  of  whose 
meetings  the  seances  reminded  him. 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  233 

The  last  attempt  to  make  Mr.  Lincoln  out  a  Spiritualist 
is  by  Mrs.  Grace  Garrett  Durand,  in  a  privately  printed  book 
issued  since  Sir  Oliver  Lodge's  Raymond.  She  claims  to 
have  talked  with  Raymond,  with  William  T.  Stead,  and  other 
people,  as  well  as  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  from  whom  she  expects  to 
receive  additional  material  supplementary  to  her  Science  and 
Health,  and  Key  to  the  Scriptures.  She  is,  however,  accord 
ing  to  her  own  account,  especially  intimate  with  Mr.  Lincoln. 
She  says : 

"  President  Lincoln  has  himself  told  me  in  many  conver 
sations  I  have  had  with  him  from  the  spirit  world  that  he 
was  directed  in  his  great  work  during  the  Civil  War  by  his 
mother  and  others  in  the  spirit  world.  Mr.  Lincoln,  or 
*  Uncle  Abe,'  as  he  has  lovingly  asked  me  to  call  him,  said  that 
had  he  respected  his  mother's  advice  the  day  of  his  assassina 
tion  he  would  not  have  gone  to  the  theater  the  fateful  night, 
as  his  mother  had  that  day  warned  him  not  to  go." 

If  Mr.  Lincoln's  spirit  has  indeed  requested  this  lady 
to  call  him  "  Uncle  Abe  "  he  has  accorded  her  a  liberty  which 
was  infrequent  during  his  lifetime.  Near  neighbors  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  during  his  years  in  Springfield  inform  me  that  no 
one  called  him  "  Abe  "  to  his  face,  and  that  very  few  even 
of  his  political  opponents  thus  spoke  of  him.  He  habitually 
addressed  his  partner  as  "  Billy,"  but  Mr.  Herndon  uniformly 
called  him  "  Mr.  Lincoln."  One  could  wish  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  heaven  might  be  at  least  as  dignified  as  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  on  earth.1 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  superstitious '? 

Both  President  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  were  superstitious. 
They  believed  in  dreams  and  signs,  he  more  in  dreams  and 

1  Lincoln  addressed  most  of  his  friends  by  their  family  name,  seldom 
prefixing  "  Mr."  A  few  he  called  by  their  first  name.  Herndon  he  called 
"  Billy."  Ward  Hill  Lamon  he  addressed  as  "  Hill."  Some  of  his  friends 
called  him  "  Lincoln,"  but  most  of  them,  "  Mr.  Lincoln."  If  any  habitu 
ally  addressed  him  as  "  Abe,"  the  author  has  been  unable  to  learn  the 
fact. 

"  Although  I  have  heard  of  cheap  fellows,  professing  that  they  were 
wont  to  address  him  as  '  Abe,'  I  never  knew  any  one  who  did  it  in  his 
presence.  Lincoln  disdained  ceremony,  but  he  gave  no  license  for  being 
called  '  Abe  V  WHITNEY  :  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  p.  53. 


234     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

she  more  in  signs.  When  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  away  from  him 
for  a  little  time,  visiting  in  Philadelphia  in  1863,  and  Tad 
with  her,  Lincoln  thought  it  sufficiently  important  to  telegraph, 
lest  the  mail  should  be  too  slow,  and  sent  her  this  message : 

"  Executive  Mansion, 

"  Washington,  June  9,  1863. 
"  MRS.  LINCOLN, 
"  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"  Think  you  better  put  Tad's  pistol  away.     I  had  an 
ugly  dream  about  him.  "  A.  LINCOLN." 

— Quoted  in  facsimile  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  February, 
1897;  Lincoln's  Home  Life  in  the  White  House,  by 
Leslie  J.  Perry. 

In  Lamon's  book  of  Recollections,  published  in  1895,  a 
very  different  book  from  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  he  devotes  an 
entire  chapter  to  Lincoln's  dreams  and  presentiments.  He 
relates  the  story  of  the  dream  which  Lincoln  had  not  long 
before  his  assassination  wherein  he  saw  the  East  Room  of 
the  White  House  containing  a  catafalque  with  the  body  of  an 
assassinated  man  lying  upon  it.  Lincoln  tried  to  remove 
himself  from  the  shadow  of  this  dream  by  recalling  a  story 
of  life  in  Indiana,  but  could  not  shake  off  the  gloom  of  it. 
Lamon  says : 

"  He  was  no  dabbler  in  divination,  astrology,  horoscopy, 
prophecy,  ghostly  lore,  or  witcheries  of  any  sort.  .  .  .  The 
moving  power  of  dreams  and  visions  of  an  extraordinary 
character  he  ascribed,  as  did  the  Patriarchs  of  old,  to  the 
Almighty  Intelligence  that  governs  the  universe,  their  processes 
conforming  strictly  to  natural  laws." — Recollections,  p.  120. 

In  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  Lamon  tells  the  story  of  the  dream 
which  Lincoln  had  late  in  the  year  1860,  when  resting  upon 
a  lounge  in  his  chamber  he  saw  his  figure  reflected  in  a  mirror 
opposite  with  two  images,  one  of  them  a  little  paler  than  the 
other.  It  worried  Lincoln,  and  he  told  his  wife  about  it.  She 
thought  it  was  "  a  sign  that  Lincoln  was  to  be  elected  for  a 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  235 

second  term  and  that  the  paleness  of  one  of  the  faces  indicated 
that  he  would  not  see  life  through  the  last  term  "  (p.  477). 

As  this  optical  illusion  has  been  so  often  printed,  and  has 
seemed  so  weirdly  prophetic  of  the  event  which  followed,  it 
may  be  well  to  quote  an  explanation  of  the  incident  from 
an  address  by  Dr.  Erastus  Eugene  Holt,  of  Portland,  Maine : 

"  As  he  lay  there  upon  the  couch,  every  muscle  became 
relaxed  as  never  before.  ...  In  this  relaxed  condition,  in 
a  pensive  mood  and  in  an  effort  to  recuperate  the  energies  of 
a  wearied  mind,  his  eyes  fell  upon  the  mirror  in  which  he 
could  see  himself  at  full  length,  reclining  upon  the  couch. 
All  the  muscles  that  direct,  control,  and  keep  the  two  eyes 
together  were  relaxed;  the  eyes  were  allowed  to  separate,  and 
each  eye  saw  a  separate  and  distinct  image  by  itself.  The 
relaxation  was  so  complete,  for  the  time  being,  that  the  two 
eyes  were  not  brought  together,  as  is  usual  by  the  action  of 
converging  muscles,  hence  the  counterfeit  presentiment  of 
himself.  He  would  have  seen  two  images  of  anything  else 
had  he  looked  for  them,  but  he  was  so  startled  by  the  ghostly 
appearance  that  he  felt  '  a  little  pang  as  though  something 
uncomfortable  had  happened,'  and  obtained  but  little  rest. 
What  a  solace  to  his  wearied  mind  it  would  have  been  if 
someone  could  have  explained  this  illusion  upon  rational 
grounds!  " — Address  at  Portland,  Maine,  February  12,  1901, 
reprinted  by  William  Abbatt,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y.,  1916. 

Other  incidents  which  relate  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  in 
dreams,  including  one  that  is  said  to  have  occurred  on  the 
night  preceding  his  assassination,  are  well  known,  and  need  not 
be  repeated  here  in  detail. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  seek  to  evade  or  minimize  the 
element  of  superstition  in  Lincoln's  life,  nor  to  ask  to  explain 
away  any  part  of  it.  Dr.  Johnson  admits  it  in  general  terms, 
but  makes  little  of  concrete  instances: 

"  The  claim  that  there  was  more  or  less  of  superstition  in 
his  nature,  and  that  he  was  greatly  affected  by  his  dreams, 
is  not  to  be  disputed.  Many  devout  Christians  today  are 
equally  superstitious,  and,  also,  are  greatly  affected  by  their 


236    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

dreams.  Lincoln  grew  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  all 
kinds  of  superstitious  beliefs.  It  is  not  strange  that  some  of 
it  should  cling  to  him  all  his  life,  just  as  it  was  with  Garfield, 
Elaine,  and  others. 

"In  1831,  then  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  Lincoln 
made  his  second  trip  to  New  Orleans.  It  was  then  that  he 
visited  a  Voodoo  fortune  teller,  that  is  so  important  in  the 
eyes  of  certain  people.  This,  doubtless,  was  out  of  mere 
curiosity,  for  it  was  his  second  visit  to  a  city.  This  no  more 
indicates  a  belief  in  '  spiritualism  '  than  does  the  fact  that  a 
few  days  before  he  started  on  this  trip  he  attended  an  exhibi 
tion  given  by  a  traveling  juggler,  and  allowed  the  magician 
to  cook  eggs  in  his  low-crowned,  broad-rimmed  hat." — Lincoln 
the  Christian,  p.  29. 

I  do  not  agree  with  this.  Superstition  was  inherent  in 
the  life  of  the  backwoods,  and  Lincoln  had  his  full  share  of 
it.  Superstition  is  very  tenacious,  and  people  who  think  that 
they  have  outgrown  it  nearly  all  possess  it.  "  I  was  always 
superstitious,"  wrote  Lincoln  to  Joshua  F.  Speed  on  July  4, 
1842.  He  never  ceased  to  be  superstitious. 

While  superstition  had  its  part  in  the  life  and  thought 
of  Lincoln,  it  was  not  the  most  outstanding  fact  in  his  think 
ing  or  his  character.  For  the  most  part  his  thinking  was 
rational  and  well  ordered,  but  it  had  in  it  many  elements  and 
some  strange  survivals — strange  until  we  recognize  the  many 
moods  of  the  man  and  the  various  conditions  of  his  life  and 
thought  in  which  from  time  to  time  he  lived. 

Was  Lincoln  a  Quaker? 

In  his  autobiographical  sketch  written  for  Jesse  W.  Fell, 
Mr.  Lincoln  stated  that  his  paternal  grandfather,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  emigrated  from  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  to 
Kentucky  about  1781  or  1782;  "his  ancestors,  who  were 
Quakers,  went  to  Virginia  from  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania." 
This  reference  to  a  remote  Quaker  ancestry  has  suggested  to 
some  writers  the  possibility  that  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  may  have 
been,  in  conviction,  a  Quaker. 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  237 

This  suggestion  is  utilized  to  its  full  value  and  beyond  by 
Henry  Bryan  Binns,  the  first  English  biographer  of  Lincoln, 
whose  book  appeared  in  1907,  and  others  have  followed  his 
intimations.  He  says: 

"In  some  brief  autobiographical  notes,  Lincoln  remarks 
that  his  ancestors,  when  they  left  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania, 
were  Quakers.  The  allusion  has  significance,  not  merely 
because  it  is  the  only  reference  to  any  religious  body  in  these 
notes,  but  because  it  suggests  an  interesting  spiritual  affiliation 
to  which  we  shall  refer  again  later." 

He  fulfills  this  promise,  and  refers  to  it  repeatedly.  The 
Quaker  ancestry  finds  reinforcement  in  his  assurance  that  the 
Shipley  strain  in  Nancy  Hanks  was  "  probably "  Quaker. 
These  references  occur  a  number  of  times  in  the  early  part  of 
his  book,  and  recur  in  the  concluding  chapter  with  more  than 
a  suggestion  that  Mr.  Lincoln  continued  to  bear  some  of  the 
inherited  spiritual  qualities  of  the  Quaker. 

These  suggestions  lack  evidential  value.  Lincoln's  grand 
father's  ancestors  were  believed  by  him  to  have  been  Quakers 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  their  ancestors  are  believed  to  have  been 
Puritans  in  Massachusetts.  But  the  New  Englanders  no  more 
surely  dropped  their  Massachusetts  Puritanism  in  Pennsylvania 
than  the  Pennsylvania  Quakers  dropped  their  Quakerism  in 
Virginia  and  Kentucky.  The  Quaker  ancestry  was  not  for 
gotten  nor  was  it  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of,  but  the  distinctive 
tenets  of  the  Friends  had  no  large  part  in  the  working  creed 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  respected  the  Quakers,  and  on  more 
than  one  occasion  showed  his  interest  in  them;  but  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe  that  he  shared  either  their  theology  or 
their  theory  of  non-resistance.  He  was  compelled  to  approve 
some  severe  measures  against  American  citizens  who  refused 
to  fight,  and  a  number  of  Quakers  suffered  in  consequence. 
Lincoln  saw  no  way  to  prevent  these  sufferings  altogether, 
though  he  did  his  best  to  mitigate  them,  and  he  always 
respected  the  principles  of  those  who  held  in  sincerity  the 
Quaker  faith  which  he  did  not  share. 


238     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Was  Lincoln  a  Unitarian  or  a  Universalist  f 

It  is  my  opinion  that  Lincoln  did  not  believe  in  endless 
punishment,  and  also  that  he  did  not  accept  the  supernatural 
birth  of  Christ.  The  evidence  on  which  these  opinions  rest 
has  already  been  indicated.  But  I  do  not  regard  him  as  a 
Universalist  or  a  Unitarian.  The  basis  of  his  religious  belief 
was  Calvinism  of  the  most  rigid  sort.  It  could  accept  some 
incidental  features  of  other  systems,  but  at  heart  it  was 
Calvinistic. 

I  have  talked  with  Rev.  Jasper  Douthit,  of  Shelby ville, 
concerning  Unitarianism  in  central  Illinois.  He  quotes  Jen- 
kin  Lloyd  Jones  as  saying  of  his  Shelbyville  church,  that 
"  Unitarianism  attempted  to  locate  in  the  Capitol  City  of  Illi 
nois,  but  struck  the  dome  of  the  State  House,  glanced  off,  and 
stuck  in  the  mud  at  Shelbyville."  In  some  sense  the  move 
ment  of  Mr.  Douthit  is  the  present  survival  of  the  attempt 
before  the  Civil  War  to  domesticate  Unitarianism  in  Spring 
field  and  vicinity.  I  have  clipped  from  the  Christian  Register 
a  communication  which,  without  pretending  to  technical  knowl 
edge  of  the  organific  principle  of  the  several  sects,  goes  near 
to  the  heart  of  this  question : 

"  To  the  editor  of  the  Christian  Register : — 

"  Apropos  of  '  Lincoln  Day,'  may  I  ask  for  definite 
information  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  belief  ?  The  author 
of  that  little  pamphlet,  '  What  do  Unitarians  Believe?  '  implies 
that  he  is  to  be  numbered  among  Unitarians,  and  quotes  from 
the  author  of  Six  Months  at  the  White  House  to  prove  his 
assertion.  Now  I  don't  know  who  the  author  of  Six  Months 
at  the  White  House  is,  and  care  less.  H*is  testimony  is  '  second 
hand '  viewed  in  any  light  you  please.  He  may  have  been  a 
Unitarian  himself,  though  I  hardly  think  he  would  have  used 
the  word  '  Saviour/  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  words, 
unless  Lincoln  himself  had  used  it.  At  any  rate,  the  only 
direct  testimony  bearing  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  views  is 
found  in  his  own  writings,  and  I  want  to  quote  from  his 
Fast  Day  proclamation  of  March  30,  1863,  as  throwing  some 
light  on  the  subject. 

"  He  says :  '  Whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations,  as  well 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  239 

as  of  men,  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overruling 
power  of  God,  to  confess  their  sins  and  transgressions  in 
humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope  that  genuine  repentance 
will  lead  to  mercy  and  pardon,  and  to  recognize  the  sublime 
truth  announced  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  proven  by  all 
history,  that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose  God  is  the 
Lord. 

" '  And,  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  His  Divine  laws, 
nations,  like  individuals,  are  subjected  to  punishments  and 
chastisements  in  this  world,  may  we  not  justly  fear  that  the 
awful  calamity  of  Civil  War,  which  now  desolates  the  land, 
may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  presumptu 
ous  sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our  national  reformation  as  a 
whole  people?  We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest 
bounties  of  Heaven.  We  have  been  preserved  these  many 
years  in  peace  and  prosperity. 

'  We  have  grown  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  power  as  no 
other  nation  has  ever  grown.  But  we  have  forgotten  God. 
We  have  forgotten  the  gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in 
peace,  and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strengthened  us;  and 
we  have  vainly  imagined  in  the  deceitfulness  of  our  hearts, 
that  all  these  blessings  were  produced  by  some  superior  wisdom 
and  virtue  of  our  own/ 

"If  this  isn't  Calvinism  pure  and  simple,  then  I  don't 
know  what  Calvinism  is. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Editor,  if  you  can  show  me  any  reference  in 
Mr.  Lincoln's  own  words  that  point  as  strongly  toward 
'  Unitarianism  '  and  those  truths  which  it  claims  as  peculiarly 
its  own,  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  it. 

"  CHARLES  B.  TOLEMAN." 

A  number  of  Lincoln's  old  neighbors,  contributing  to  the 
Irwin  article  in  denial  of  the  alleged  infidelity  of  Lincoln, 
affirm  that  he  was  a  Universalist.  In  their  denial  of  his 
infidelity  they  were  correct;  and  also  in  their  detection  of 
the  fallacy  of  Herndon  in  which  he  counted  every  opinion 
to  be  infidel  that  did  not  conform  to  the  severe  orthodoxy 
with  which  he  was  familiar.  As  between  Herndon  and  these 
writers,  they  were  correct.  Lincoln's  "  infidelity  "  consisted 
in  good  part  of  his  denial  of  eternal  punishment.  But  that  did 


240     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

not  make  him  an  infidel;  neither  did  it  constitute  him  tech 
nically  a  Universalist.  The  substratum  of  his  belief  was  the 
old-time  predestinarianism  which  he  heard  in  his  youth  and 
never  outgrew.  How  he  could  make  this  blend  with  his 
wide  departures  from  conventional  orthodoxy  in  other  points, 
those  can  best  understand  who  have  heard  the  kind  of  preach 
ing  on  which  Lincoln  grew  up.  Its  effect  is  not  easily 
obliterated. 


Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Methodist? 

This  question  would  seem  to  require  no  answer,  yet  it  is 
one  that  should  receive  an  answer,  for  claims  have  been 
made,  and  are  still  current,  which  imply  that  Lincoln  was 
actually  converted  in  the  Methodist  Church,  whose  doctrine 
he  accepted  because  Calvinism  was  repugnant  to  him;  and 
that  while  he  continued  to  attend  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
he  was  essentially  a  Methodist. 

Lincoln  had  a  very  high  regard  for  the  Methodist  Church. 
It  was  rent  asunder  during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  Northern 
branch  of  the  church  which  had  long  been  vigorously  anti- 
slavery  was  warmly  loyal.  On  May  18,  1864,  in  a  letter  of 
reply  to  a  deputation  of  ministers  from  that  body,  he  said, 
"  God  bless  the  Methodist  Church — bless  all  the  churches,  and 
blessed  be  God  who,  in  this  our  great  trial,  giveth  us  the 
churches." 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  Methodism  did 
not  at  any  time  appear  greatly  to  influence  the  Lincoln  family 
in  matters  of  theology,  and  that  the  early  environment  of  the 
family  from  the  birth  of  Lincoln  was  Baptist.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  the  Hanks  family  had  Methodist  antecedents. 
Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln  were  married  by  a  Methodist 
preacher,  Rev.  Jesse  Head.  He  is  known  to  have  been  a 
foe  of  slavery,  and  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that  the 
Lincoln  family  derived  some  part  of  its  love  of  freedom 
from  him. 

From  time  to  time  Lincoln  met  Methodist  preachers  who 
deeply  impressed  him.  One  of  these  was  Rev.  Peter  Akers, 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  241 

whom  he  heard  in  1837,  when  Lincoln  was  twenty-eight  years 
of  age. 

"  He  and  a  group  of  associates  went  out  to  hear  him  at  a 
camp-meeting  six  miles  west  of  Springfield,  at  the  *  Salem 
Church/  The  Rev.  Peter  Akers  was  a  vigorous  and  fearless 
man.  He  spoke  of  certain  prophecies,  and  predicted  'the 
downfall  of  castes,  the  end  of  tyrannies,  and  the  crushing  out 
of  slavery/  On  the  way  home  they  were  earnestly  discussing 
the  sermon.  Lincoln  is  alleged  to  have  said :  '  It  was  the 
most  instructive  sermon,  and  he  is  the  most  impressive 
preacher,  I  have  ever  heard.  It  is  wonderful  that  God  has 
given  such  power  to  men.  I  firmly  believe  his  interpretation 
of  prophecy,  so  far  as  I  understand  it,  and  especially  about 
the  breaking  down  of  civil  and  religious  tyrannies;  and,  odd 
as  it  may  seem,  I  was  deeply  impressed  that  I  should  be  some 
how  strangely  mixed  up  with  them." — TARBELL,  Life  of  Lin 
coln,  I,  237. 

In  the  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln  by  Bishop  Fowler,  as 
finally  prepared  for  the  press,  is  an  incident  which  apparently 
was  not  in  its  earlier  editions.  At  a  reunion  of  the  Seventy- 
third  Illinois  Volunteers,  held  in  Springfield  on  September  28, 
29,  1897, tne  colonel  of  that  regiment,  Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess, 
D.D.,  related  an  incident  in  which  he  stated  that  while  he  was 
serving  a  Methodist  Church  in  Springfield  in  1839,  Mr.  Lincoln 
attended  a  series  of  revival  services  held  in  that  church,  and 
was  converted.  The  story  was  heard  with  great  interest  by 
the  old  soldiers  of  that  regiment,  many  of  whose  officers  had 
been  Methodist  preachers,  and  it  was  printed  in  the  Minutes 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Eleventh  Annual  Reunion  of  Sur 
vivors  of  the  Seventy-third  Illinois  Infantry. 

Twelve  years  later,  in  1909,  in  connection  with  the  Cen 
tenary  Celebration  of  the  birth  of  Lincoln,  the  story  was 
reprinted,  with  certain  added  details  obtained  from  the  brother 
of  Colonel  Jacquess.  As  thus  wrought  into  literary  form,  it 
was  printed  in  the  New  York  Christian  Advocate  in  an  article 
entitled  "  The  Conversion  of  Lincoln/*  by  Rev.  Edward  L. 
Watson,  of  Baltimore. 


242     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Already  Bishop  Fowler,  to  whom  Colonel  Jacquess  alluded 
in  his  address  at  Springfield  as  having  no  adequate  account  of 
Lincoln's  conversion,  had  accepted  the  story  and  incorporated 
it  into  the  final  version  of  his  famous  lecture  (Patriotic  Ora 
tions,  p.  102).  The  death  of  Colonel  Jacquess  and  the  addi 
tions  made  by  his  brother  give  this  incident  its  permanent 
form  in  the  Christian  Advocate  article  of  November  n,  1909. 

I  am  glad  to  have  been  able  to  obtain  from  the  Christian 
Advocate  their  last  copy  of  that  issue,  outside  their  office  file, 
and  it  appears  in  full  in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume.  It  may 
be  accepted  as  the  authoritative  form  of  this  story. 

That  the  story  as  told  by  Colonel  Jacquess  must  have  had 
some  element  of  truth  I  think  beyond  question ;  that  it  occurred 
exactly  as  he  related  it,  I  greatly  doubt.  The  years  between 
1839  and  1897  numbered  fifty-eight,  and  that  is  more  than 
ample  time  for  a  man's  memory  to  magnify  and  color  incidents 
almost  beyond  recognition. 

The  story  as  it  is  thus  told  lacks  confirmatory  evidence.* 
If  Lincoln  was  converted  in  a  Methodist  Church  in  1839  anc^ 
remained  converted,  a  considerable  number  of  events  which 
occurred  in  subsequent  years  might  reasonably  have  been 
expected  to  have  been  otherwise  than  they  really  were.  Each 
reader  must  judge  for  himself  in  the  light  of  all  that  we  know 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  how  much  or  how  little  of  this  story  is 
to  be  accepted  as  literal  fact.  The  present  writer  cannot 
say  that  he  is  convinced  by  the  story. 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Freemason? 

In  an  address  delivered  before  Harmony  Lodge,  in  Wash 
ington,  D.  C,  on  January  28,  1914,  Dr.  L.  D.  Carman  deliv 
ered  an  address,  which  has  since  been  printed,  entitled  "  Abra- 

3  Dr.  Chapman,  who  appears  to  have  permitted  no  improbable  story 
of  Lincoln's  orthodoxy  to  escape  him,  records  this  incident  with  com 
plete  assurance  of  its  correctness;  but  it  is  a  story  which  it  is  impossible 
to  fit  into  the  life  of  Lincoln. 

In  Latest  Light  on  Lincoln,  p.  396,  Chapman  says,  "  There  is  every 
reason  for  giving  this  remarkable  story  unquestioning  credence."  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  every  good  reason  for  questioning  it  at  every  essen 
tial  point,  and  the  questions  do  not  evoke  satisfactory  answers. 


WHAT  LINCOLN  WAS  NOT  243 

ham  Lincoln,  Freemason."  In  this  address  it  was  set  forth 
that  "  It  was  not  an  unusual  practice  in  the  early  days  of 
Masonry  in  this  country  in  sparsely  settled  localities,  remote 
from  an  active  lodge,  for  several  members  of  the  fraternity 
to  get  together,  form  an  emergent  or  occasional  lodge,  and 
make  Masons."  Abraham  Lincoln  was  presumed  to  have 
been  made  such  a  Mason  because  of  utterances  of  his,  quoted 
at  length,  which  appeared  to  show  familiarity  with  Masonic 
usage.4 

Those  utterances,  when  examined,  carry  no  such  presump 
tion,  nor  was  there  any  occasion  for  such  an  emergent  lodge. 
A  lodge  existed  at  Petersburg,  near  New  Salem,  and  a  number 
of  Lincoln's  friends  belonged  to  it ;  their  names  are  on  record. 
The  records  of  the  Springfield  Lodge,  also,  are  preserved, 
and  bear  no  mention  of  his  name;  nor  is  there  any  evidence 
so  far  as  the  present  author  knows  that  on  any  occasion  he 
was  ever  in  a  Masonic  Lodge.  Orators  may  use  the  symbolic 
language  of  architecture  without  knowledge  of  speculative 
Masonry,  and  Lincoln  used  it  so. 

4  Whitney  affirms  that  Lincoln  was  never  a  member  of  any  secret 
society.  If  he  had  been,  that  society  would  certainly  have  produced  a 
record  of  his  membership. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
WHY  DID  LINCOLN  NEVER  JOIN  THE  CHURCH? 

MR.  THOMAS  LEWIS,  attorney  in  Springfield  with  an  office  on 
the  same  floor  and  an  elder  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
informs  us  that  there  was  some  real  expectation  that  Lincoln 
would  have  united  with  that  church  in  Springfield  after  his 
views  had  been  modified  through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Smith. 
He  says  that  Lincoln  attended  with  considerable  regularity 
a  series  of  revival  meetings  in  progress  in  the  church,  but 
was  out  of  town  when  application  was  made  for  church  mem 
bership  and  the  officers  of  the  church  were  disappointed  that 
he  did  not  then  unite. 

Rev.  Dr.  Phineas  D.  Gurley,  of  Washington,  tells  of  con 
versations  with  Lincoln  concerning  religion  and  of  some 
expressed  desires  on  the  part  of  Lincoln  for  church  fellow 
ship.  His  feeling  of  support  in  prayer  was  manifest  in  his 
coming  to  the  mid-week  prayer  service,  where,  however,  as 
Dr.  Gurley  affirms,  he  commonly  sat  in  the  pastor's  room  with 
an  open  door,  hearing  the  prayers  that  were  offered  but  pre 
ferring  not  to  attract  attention  by  his  visible  presence. 

The  best  statement,  and  one  that  has  been  accepted  as 
truly  representative  of  Lincoln's  feeling  with  regard  to  church 
membership,  is  one  that  comes  to  us  on  thoroughly  good 
authority  and  from  the  period  immediately  following  Lin 
coln's  death. 

Hon.  Henry  C.  Deming,  member  of  Congress  from 
Connecticut,  in  a  memorial  address  given  before  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Connecticut,  June  8,  1865,  related  that  he  had  asked 
Mr.  Lincoln  why  he  never  united  with  a  church,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  answered: 

"  I  have  never  united  myself  to  any  church,  because  I 
have  found  difficulty  in  giving  my  assent,  without  mental 
reservation,  to  the  long,  complicated  statements  of  Christian 

244 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     245 

doctrine  which  characterize  their  articles  of  belief  and  con 
fessions  of  faith.  When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its 
altars,  as  its  sole  qualification  for  membership,  the  Saviour's 
condensed  statement  of  the  substance  of  both  law  and  gospel, 
'  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself/  that  church  will  I  join  with  all  my  heart  and  all 
my  soul  "  (p.  42). 

To  his  Washington  pastor,  Rev.  Phineas  D.  Gurley,  he 
said  that  he  could  not  accept,  perhaps,  all  the  doctrines  of  his 
Confession  of  Faith,  "  but,"  said  he,  "  if  all  that  I  am  asked 
to  respond  to  is  what  our  Lord  said  were  the  two  great  com 
mandments,  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and 
mind  and  soul  and  strength,  and  my  neighbor  as  myself,  why, 
I  aim  to  do  that." 

Mr.  Henry  B.  Rankin,  who  wrote  his  Reminiscences  in 
1916,  states  that  he  was  a  boy  in  Lincoln's  office  and  his 
parents  knew  Lincoln  intimately  during  his  years  of -struggle 
in  New  Salem.  Mr.  Rankin's  recollection  of  a  conversation 
which  Lincoln  had  with  Mr.  Rankin's  mother  indicates  that 
Lincoln  had  some  such  feeling  as  far  back  as  his  New  Salem 
days.  The  Rankin  family  were  warm  friends  of  Peter 
Cartwright,  whom  they  called  Uncle  Peter,  and  also  of  Mr. 
Lincoln.  Mrs.  Rankin  asked  him  concerning  the  rumor  that 
he  was  an  infidel,  and  Lincoln  denied  it ;  but  being  pressed  to 
explain  why  he  did  not  then  confess  his  Christian  faith,  he 
gave  to  her  much  the  answer  which  in  later  years  he  gave 
to  Mr.  Deming  and  to  Dr.  Gurley  (Reminiscences  of  Lincoln, 
pp.  324-26). 

I  think,  then,  we  are  compelled  to  accept  this  threefold 
testimony  as  establishing  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt  the 
answer  that  Lincoln  himself  gave  to  the  question,  why  he  did 
not  unite  with  the  Church.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  he  was 
not  brought  into  contact  with  some  form  of  organized  Chris 
tianity,  orthodox  and  constructive  in  its  essential  teachings, 
but  with  conditions  of  church  membership  as  broad  as  those 
of  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Churches  have 
learned  a  little  better  than  they  understood  in  1846  that  a 


246     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

church  creed  should  be  a  testimony  and  not  a  test;  that  it  is 
entirely  consistent  with  the  organization  and  ideal  of  a  thor 
oughly  orthodox  church  to  receive  into  its  membership  any 
and  every  person  who  loves  God  and  his  fellow-man  even 
though  he  doubts  thirty-eight  of  the  thirty-nine  articles  of 
the  creed  and  is  more  or  less  uncertain  about  the  other  one. 

But  we  cannot  consider  the  question  of  Lincoln's  possible 
church  membership  and  his  failure  to  acquire  it  without 
asking  whether  the  fault  was  wholly  that  of  the  churches. 
Other  men  beside  Abraham  Lincoln  were  more  liberal  than 
the  churches,  including  old  Mentor  Graham,  but  were  able 
to  find  a  home  there ;  though  Graham  was  ultimately  turned 
out  of  the  so-called  "  hardshell  "  church  for  his  warm  advo 
cacy  of  the  principles  of  temperance.  Some  share  of  the 
responsibility  for  his  failure  to  unite  with  the  Church  must 
belong  to  Lincoln  himself. 

It  is  a  hazardous  thing  to  suggest  any  element  short  of 
perfection  in  the  life  or  thought  of  any  popular  hero.  Never 
theless  let  us  remind  ourselves  that  Lincoln  had  the  defects  of 
his  qualities. 

Lincoln  lacked  some  of  the  finer  feelings.  He  combined 
a  deep  personal  sympathy  for  anything  which  he  could  visualize 
with  a  rather  strange  mental  obtuseness  toward  things  remote 
or  abstract.  Darwin,  who  was  born  in  the  same  year,  had 
an  early  love  of  poetry  and  music.  How  these  tastes  became 
atrophied  in  his  concentration  of  thought  upon  matters  relat 
ing  to  the  natural  sciences  was  confessed  and  mourned  by 
him,  and  has  often  been  commented  upon  by  others.  The 
time  came  to  him  when  music  and  poetry  gave  him  physical 
nausea.  Lincoln  never  had  an  appreciation  or  love  of  any 
thing  very  fine  either  in  poetry  or  music.  At  a  time  when  he 
was  being  considered  for  President  he  could  sit  in  a  stage 
coach  playing  "  Yankee  Doodle  "  on  the  mouth-organ1  and 
playing  it  badly,  but  he  had  no  fine  musical  or  poetic  taste. 

Not  long  before  his  assassination  his  sister-in-law,  Mrs. 

1  Whitney  tells  us  of  this  in  his  With  Lincoln  on  the  Circuit,  describ 
ing  the  instrument  as  a  "  French  harp."  This  term  has  given  rise  to 
some  ludicrous  mistakes  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  quoted  it.  In 
Kentucky  and  in  "Egypt"  a  French  harp  is  a  harmonica. 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     247 

Edwards,  visited  at  the  White  House,  and  he  accompanied 
her  one  evening  to  the  conservatory.  She  greatly  admired 
the  rare  exotics  which  she  there  beheld  for  the  first  time,  and 
Lincoln  vainly  strove  to  share  her  enthusiasm  but  confessed 
to  her  that  something  had  been  left  out  of  his  nature.  Such 
things  seemed  to  make  no  appeal  to  him. 

Of  Lincoln's  lack  in  matters  involving  the  finer  feelings 
we  have  abundant  testimony  not  only  in  the  pages  of  Lamon 
and  Herndon,  but  in  other  intimate  sketches  of  his  life  in 
Illinois,  as,  for  example,  in  Whitney's  With  Lincoln  on  the  Cir 
cuit,2  and  especially  in  his  article  in  the  Arena  in  April,  1898. 
There  were  aspects  of  religion  which  did  not  make  as  strong 
an  appeal  to  Abraham  Lincoln  as  they  would  have  made  but 
for  this  blind  spot  in  his  nature. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  go  in  any  detail  into 
Mr.  Lincoln's  love  affairs;  but  if  any  further  illustration  were 
desired  of  this  point  of  which  we  are  speaking,  it  could  be 
found  very  painfully  in  his  relations  with  Miss  Owens,  and 
his  letter  to  Mrs.  Browning. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  a  certain  lack  of  good  taste 
which  Lincoln  sometimes  manifested,  and  of  which  the  reminis 
cences  of  Lamon,  Herndon,  Whitney,  and  others  of  his  asso 
ciates  have  given  us  sufficient  example.  But  it  was  not  always 
so  with  Lincoln.  There  was  in  him  an  innate  courtesy,  an 
intuitive  sympathy,  an  ability  to  adapt  himself  to  another's 
point  of  view,  which  gave  him  the  essential  quality  of  a 
gentleman.  Fred  Douglass  said  of  him  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
the  only  white  man  with  whom  he  ever  talked  for  an  hour  who 
did  not  in  some  way  remind  him  that  he  was  a  negro.  That 
same  fine  feeling  showed  itself  in  many  ways. 

It  should  be  remembered,  too,  when  his  uncouthness  of 
apparel  is  recalled,  that  while  he  was  always  a  careless  man  in 
his  dress,  the  period  in  which  he  lived  was  one  in  which  people 
of  the  regions  where  he  formed  his  lifelong  habits  were  not 

2  "  Of  dress,  food,  and  the  ordinary  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life, 
he  was  an  incompetent  judge.  He  could  not  discern  between  well  and 
ill-cooked  and  served  food.  He  did  not  know  whether  or  not  clothes 
fitted.  He  did  not  know  whether  music  was  artistic  or  in  bad  taste." 
WHITNEY:  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  p.  52. 


248    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

given  to  fastidious  dress.  He  dressed  much  as  other  men 
dressed.  The  shawl  which  he  wore  was  such  a  shawl  as  the 
author's  father  wore ;  such  as  many  men  wore.  It  was  a  mark 
of  good  breeding  rather  than  the  reverse,  and  some  men  wore 
the  shawl  very  effectively  for  purposes  of  display.  The  author 
himself  has  often  carried  with  him  in  long  rides  in  the  southern 
mountains  what  w£s  called  a  "  saddle-shawl "  not  unlike  that 
of  Lincoln;  and  he  now  owns  such  a  shawl,  bequeathed  to  him 
by  one  of  Lincoln's  contemporaries,  and  of  the  same  color  and 
approximately  the  same  size  that  Lincoln  used. 

Mrs.  Jane  Martin  Johns  of  Decatur,  died  recently  at  the 
age  of  ninety -two.  Her  mind  was  clear  and  her  memory  pre 
cise.  She  has  left  this,  among  other  memories  of  Lincoln,  as 
a  reminder  that  he  was  a  gentleman,  and  that  at  times  he 
showed  the  finest  discrimination  and  good  taste : 

"  When  I  first  knew  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  was  forty  years  old ; 
had  been  a  member  of  the  state  legislature  and  of  congress; 
had  traveled  the  circuit  with  men  of  culture  and  refinement; 
had  met  great  statesmen  and  elegant  gentlemen;  and  the  un- 
gainliness  of  the  pioneer,  if  he  ever  had  it,  had  worn  off  and 
his  manner  was  that  of  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  unaf 
fected,  unostentatious,  who  arose  at  once  when  a  lady  entered 
the  room,  and  whose  courtly  manners  would  put  to  shame  the 
easy-going  indifference  to  etiquette  which  marks  the  twentieth 
century  gentleman. 

"  His  dress,  like  his  manner,  was  suited  to  the  occasion, 
but  was  evidently  a  subject  to  which  he  gave  little  thought. 
It  was  certainly  unmarked  by  any  notable  peculiarity.  It  was 
the  fashion  of  the  day  for  men  to  wear  large  shawls  and  Mr. 
Lincoln's  shawl,  very  large,  very  soft,  and  very  fine,  is  the 
only  article  of  his  dress  that  has  left  the  faintest  impression  on 
my  memory.  He  wore  it  folded  lengthwise  (three  and  one- 
half  yards  long)  in  scarf  fashion  over  his  shoulders,  caught 
together  under  the  chin  with  an  immense  safety-pin.  One  end 
of  the  shawl  was  thrown  across  his  breast  and  over  the 
shoulder,  as  he  walked  up  the  steps  of  the  Macon  House  one 
day  in  December,  1849. 

"  Court  was  in  session  in  Decatur,  Judge  David  Davis  pre 
siding.  The  hotel,  where  I  was  living  temporarily,  was  kept 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     249 

by  David  Krone  and  his  good  lady,  whose  popularity  extended 
over  the  fourteen  counties  of  the  Eighth  Judicial  District. 

"  Court  week  was  always  anticipated  with  great  interest  by 
the  people  of  the  county  seat.  It  was  customary  for  the  entire 
bar  of  the  district  to  follow  the  court  from  county  to  county, 
every  man  either  seeking  new  business,  or  as  counsel  in  cases 
already  on  the  docket.  The  date  of  their  arrival  at  any  par 
ticular  county  seat  could  not  be  definitely  fixed,  as  the  judge 
held  court  at  his  pleasure,  usually  trying  to  finish  all  the  busi 
ness  ahead  before  he  migrated  to  the  next  station. 

"  He  was  followed  by  a  curious  crowd.  Lawyers,  clients, 
witnesses,  itinerant  peddlers,  showmen,  and  gamblers  filled  the 
towns  to  overflowing.  It  was  no  unusual  thing  for  men  who 
had  no  business  in  the  court,  to  follow  from  town  to  town 
merely  seeking  entertainment.  Social  events  of  any  moment 
were  wont  to  be  arranged  for  court  week,  as  the  harvest  time 
when  strangers  could  be  taken  in.  Taverns  were  crowded  and 
the  hospitality  of  the  people  was  taxed  to  the  utmost  limit. 

"  To  the  men  of  the  town,  who  always  crowded  the  court 
house,  the  examination  of  witnesses  and  the  speeches  of  the 
lawyers  furnished  an  intellectual  treat,  for  there  w'ere  giants 
at  that  bar.  There  was  David  Davis,  the  companionable  judge, 
who  knew  the  law  and  who  loved  a  laugh.  And  there  were 
Stephen  Logan  the  scholarly,  and  Stuart  the  shrewd  and 
kindly,  Swett  the  clever,  and  Browning  the  handsome,  and 
Lamon  the  amusing,  and  Weldon  and  Gridley  and  Parks  and 
Harmon  and  Ficklin  and  Linder  and  Whitney  and  Oliver  L. 
Davis,  and  the  best  beloved  Abraham  Lincoln.  Some  of  them 
traveled  to  only  two  or  three  counties,  but  Judge  Davis,  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  Leonard  Swett  went  the  whole  circuit;  Davis 
because  he  had  to,  Lincoln  because  he  loved  it,  and  Swett 
because  he  loved  their  company. 

"  The  Macon  House  was  an  oasis  in  the  wilderness  of 
miserable  inns  at  which  they  were  usually  compelled  to  '  put 
in.'  In  Decatur  they  found  clean  beds,  good  bread  and  an 
abundance  of  the  good  things  of  the  season,  administered  by  a 
genial  landlady  who  greeted  them  all  as  friends. 

•  "  It  was  in  court  week  that  my  piano,  after  a  long  journey 
by  steamer  down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Wabash  to  Crawfords- 
ville,  Ind.,  and  thence  by  wagon,  arrived  in  Decatur.  The 
wagon  was  backed  up  to  the  steps  at  the  front  door  of  the 


250    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Macon  House  and  the  question  of  how  to  unload  it  and  get 
it  into  the  house  was  a  puzzling  one.  Not  a  man  except  the 
landlord  was  to  be  found,  but  he  soon  solved  the  problem. 
"  Court  will  soon  adjourn  and  there  will  be  plenty  of  men," 
and  almost  as  he  spoke  the  crowd  began  to  appear.  They 
gathered  curiously  around  the  wagon  that  blocked  the  en 
trance.  Landlord  Krone  explained: 

"  '  There  is  a  piano  in  that  box  that  this  woman  here  wants 
someone  to  help  unload.  Who  will  lend  a  hand  ?  ' 

"  A  tall  gentleman  stepped  forward  and,  throwing  off  a 
big  gray  Scotch  shawl,  exclaimed,  '  Come  on,  Swett,  you  are 
the  next  biggest  man/ 

"  That  was  my  first  meeting  with  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  After  a  few  moments'  consultation  with  the  driver  of 
the  wagon,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  into  the  basement  where  Mr. 
Krone  had  a  carpenter  shop,  and  returned  with  two  heavy 
timbers  across  his  shoulders.  With  them  he  established  com 
munication  between  the  wagon  and  the  front  door  steps.  The 
piano  was  unloaded  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Linder  and 
Mr.  Swett,  amid  jokes  and  jeers  galore,  most  of  the  jeers 
coming  from  little  Judge  Logan. 

"  Before  the  legs  had  been  screwed  into  place,  dinner  was 
announced,  and  the  men  hurried  to  the  back  porch  where  two 
tin  wash  basins,  a  long  roller  towel  and  a  coarse  comb, 
fastened  to  the  wall  by  a  long  string,  afforded  toilet  accom 
modations  for  all  guests.  When  dinner  was  served,  '  Mother 
Krone '  placed  a  roast  of  beef  in  front  of  Dr.  Trowbridge  to 
be  carved  and  exclaimed,  '  Men,  if  you  can't  get  your  teeth 
through  this  beef  you  will  have  to  fall  back  on  the  sausage. 
I  agreed  to  try  roasting  it  without  parboiling  it,  and  I  am 
afraid  it  will  be  tougher  than  it  was  yesterday,  and  that  was 
bad  enough.' 

"  The  beef,  however,  proved  to  be  tender  and  juicy  and 
was  highly  praised  by  the  guests.  I  recall  this  incident  be 
cause  Mr.  Lincoln  once  reminded  me  of  it,  saying  that  '  that 
was  the  time  he  learned  that  roast  beef  ought  not  to  tie  boiled.' 

"  After  dinner,  Mr.  Lincoln  superintended  the  setting  up 
of  the  piano,  even  to  seeing  that  it  stood  squarely  in  the  center 
of  the  wall  space  allotted  it,  and  then  received  my  thanks  with 
a  polite  bow  and  asked : '  Are  you  expecting  to  follow  the  court 
and  give  concerts  ? '  The  immense  relief  expressed  on  his 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     251 

countenance,  when  he  was  assured  that  he  would  not  be 
called  upon  to  repeat  the  performance  was  very  laughable. 

"  '  Then  may  we  have  one  tune  before  we  go? '  he  asked, 
and  I  played  '  Rosin  the  Bow/  with  variations. 

"  Someone  shouted,  *  Come  on,  boys,  the  judge  will  be 
waiting/  and  after  I  had  assured  them  that  if  they  desired  it, 
I  would  give  my  *  first  and  only  concert  on  this  circuit '  when 
they  returned  to  the  hotel  in  the  evening,  the  crowd 
dispersed. 

"  Here  I  wish  to  note  that  in  the  crowd  that  had  as 
sembled  to  watch  the  unloading  of  the  piano,  the  members  of 
the  bar,  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  and  equals,  always  addressed 
him  as  '  Mr.  Lincoln/  while  to  the  rabble  and  hangers-on  he 
was  often  '  Abe/ 

"  The  piano  was  a  '  Gilbert/  made  in  Boston,  and  its  fame 
extended  far  and  wide.  It  was  visited  by  people  from  all  over 
the  state,  stage  coach  passengers  frequently  '  holding  the  stage  ' 
while  they  went  down  to  the  other  tavern  (the  Harrell  House 
was  the  stage  office)  to  see  and  hear  the  novel  instrument. 

'  That  evening  a  notable  crowd  assembled  in  the  parlor  of 
the  Macon  House.  Judge  Davis,  who  did  not  put  up  with 
Landlord  Krone  but  was  the  guest  of  Mrs.  A'.  A.  Powers,  came 
in  after  supper;  and  practically  all  of  the  bar  of  the  Eighth 
Judicial  District  was  present  at  what  I  suppose  we  would  now 
call  a  recital.  I  found  that  Mr.  Charles  Brown,  a  wealthy 
landowner  and  stock  dealer  of  McLean  County,  not  only  sang 
but  played  a  little  and  I  called  on  him  for  assistance. 

"  The  program,  as  I  remember  it,  will  illustrate  the  style 
of  music  in  vogue  at  that  period. 

"  For  show  pieces,  I  played  the  *  Battle  of  Prague '  and 
the  '  Carnival  of  Venice/  then  followed  with  '  Washington's 
March/  '  Come  Haste  to  the  Wedding/  and  '  Woodup  Quick 
Step '  to  convince  the  audience  that  I  did  know  a  tune  or  two. 
For  tragedy,  I  sang  Henry  Russel's  '  Maniac '  and  '  The  Ship 
on  Fire/  and  then  made  their  blood  run  cold  With  the  wild 
wail  of  the  '  Irish  Mother's  Lament.'  For  comic,  we  sang 
1  The  Widdy  McGee '  and  '  I  Won't  Be  a  Nun/  topping  off 
with  '  Old  Dan  Tucker/  '  Lucy  Long/  and  '  Jim  Crow/  the 
crowd  joining  in  the  chorus.  These  were  followed  by  more 
serious  music.  Mr.  Brown  and  Mr.  Swett  joined  me  in  the 
duet  '  Moonlight,  Music,  Love,  and  Flowers/  '  Rocked  in  the 


252     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Cradle  of  the  Deep/  '  Pilgrim  Fathers/  '  Bonaparte's  Grave/ 
and  '  Kathleen  Mavourneen.'  Each  and  all  met  with 
applause. 

"  As  a  finale,  I  sang  '  He  Doeth  All  Things  Well/  after 
which  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  a  very  grave  manner,  thanked  me  for 
the  evening's  entertainment,  and  said :  '  Don't  let  us  spoil  that 
song  by  any  other  music  tonight.'  Many  times  afterwards  I 
sang  that  song  for  Mr.  Lincoln  and  for  Governor  Oglesby, 
with  whom  it  was  also  a  favorite." 

Another  limitation  must  be  found  in  Lincoln's  morbid 
cautiousness.  Herndon  tells  us  that  his  very  walk  gave  the 
impression  of  craftiness;  that  it  was  not  the  product  of  deceit, 
but  only  of  a  caution  so  excessive  that  it  became  something 
more  than  second  nature.  He  was  secretive  to  a  marked 
degree.  When  he  seemed  to  be  confidential  it  was  in  minor 
matters,  or  matters  on  which  he  had  already  made  up  his 
mind  and  intended  soon  to  make  a  public  statement.  What 
ever  may  be  the  true  story  of  his  engagement  to  Mary  Todd 
and  of  those  stormy  and  obscure  months  between  "  that  fatal 
first  of  January,  1840,"  and  the  date  of  their  wedding,  Novem 
ber  4,  1842,  Lincoln's  letters  to  Speed  show  an  excess  of 
caution  that  was  positively  abnormal.  That  it  was  a  mark  of 
insanity  has  been  vigorously  denied  and  with  much  apparent 
reason;  but  if  it  was  not  the  mark  of  acute  mental  aberration, 
it  was  the  manifestation  of  a  permanent  mental  trait.  Such  a 
nature,  which  debated  like  Hamlet  the  question  of  suicide 
and  actually  printed  a  brief  article  which  was  later  cut  from 
the  files  of  the  Springfield  paper — probably  by  Lincoln  him 
self — which  lingered  shivering  on  the  brink  of  matrimony 
like  the  "  timorous  mortal "  of  whom  Lincoln  was  taught  to 
sing,  must  have  hesitated  long  before  coming  to  such  a  con 
fident  poise  between  alternating  faith  and  doubt  as  that  he 
could  have  stood  before  the  altar  of  a  Presbyterian  church  in 
Springfield  or  in  Washington  and  taken  upon  him  the  vows 
of  church  membership. 

Different  writers  have  attempted  to  account  for  Lincoln's 
failure  to  affiliate  with  the  church  wholly  on  the  basis  of  his 
being  greater  than  the  churches.  I  quote  from  one  of  these 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     253 

characteristic  addresses,  and  one  that  is  in  many  respects 
excellent : 

"  Perhaps  his  religious  nature  was  so  broad  that  it  could 
not  be  compassed  within  the  limits  of  any  particular  creed  or 
system  of  doctrines.  Perhaps  he  saw  the  soul  of  truth  so 
clearly  that  he  could  not  accept  any  one  of  them  as  a  complete 
and  final  revelation  of  truth.  Perhaps  he  so  clearly  realized 
that  all  religious  creeds  and  systems  have  their  roots  in  human 
nature  that  he  could  look  upon  the  Christian  system  as  the  only 
deposit  of  truth  committed  to  the  children  of  men.  Perhaps 
his  conception  of  Deity  was  so  vast  that  he  could  not  see  all 
the  Divine  attributes  manifest  in  the  historic  Christ.  Perhaps 
he  felt  that  some  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  as  they  were 
formulated  and  preached  in  his  day,  would  be  a  hindrance 
rather  than  a  help  to  his  religious  faith,  so  clear  was  his  vision 
of  the  things  which  are  unseen  and  eternal,  and  so  close  was 
his  relation  to  the  Author  of  his  being.  Perhaps  he  felt  no 
need  of  a  daysman  or  mediator,  because  he  himself  knew  the 
Lord  face  to  face." — MILTON  R.  SCOTT:  Lincoln, Was  He  an 
Inspired  Prophet?,  pp.  55-57. 

There  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  this  presentation  of  one  side 
of  the  case,  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  Lincoln  did  not 
possess  this  supposed  clarity  of  vision  of  all  spiritual  truth. 
Some  things  he  saw  clearly,  but  his  faith  and  vision  had  each 
of  them  marked  and  undeniable  limitations. 

In  his  widely  popular  and  in  many  respects  excellent  ora 
tion  on  Lincoln,  Bishop  Fowler  said : 

"  Let  us  analyze  Mr.  Lincoln  if  we  are  able.  This  task  is 
difficult  on  account  of  his  symmetry.  He  was  so  much  like  a 
sphere  that  he  projected  farthest  in  every  direction.  His  com 
prehension  is  to  us  impossible  on  account  of  his  immensity,  for 
a  man  can  be  comprehended  only  by  his  peers  "  (p.  28). 

He  found  the  same  difficulty  in  estimating  Grant.  "  It  is 
difficult  to  analyze  General  Grant,  because  he  is  so  simple  and 
complete.  Like  Lincoln,  he  is  like  a  sphere;  approached  from 
any  side  he  seems  to  project  farthest  toward  you.  Try  to 


254     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

divide,  and  each  section  is  like  all  the  rest.  Cut  him  through, 
and  he  is  all  the  way  through  alike  "  (p.  127). 

I  do  not  think  that  this  is  correct  concerning  Grant,  and  it 
certainly  is  not  true  concerning  Lincoln.  He  was  not  a  sphere; 
he  was  angular  or  he  was  nothing.3  In  endeavoring  to  assess 
his  religious  convictions,  we  are  liable  to  encounter  contra 
dictions.  But  there  is  a  certain  inconsistent  consistency  in 
those  contradictions.  There  are  certain  kinds  of  contradictions 
which  we  do  not  encounter,  and  certain  which,  encountering, 
may  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  certain  underlying  agree 
ments. 

For  instance,  the  Calvinism  which  he  inherited  and  heard 
through  his  childhood  and  which  he  accepted  in  a  kind  of  semi- 

3 "  I  repeat  that  his  was  one  of  the  most  uneven,  eccentric,  and 
heterogeneous  characters,  probably,  that  ever  played  a  part  in  the  great 
drama  of  history ;  and  it  was  for  that  reason  that  he  was  so  greatly 
misjudged  and  misunderstood ;  that  he  was  on  the  one  hand  described 
as  a  mere  humorist — a  sort  of  Artemus  Ward  or  Mark  Twain — that  it 
was  thought  that  by  some  irony  of  fate  a  low  comedian  had  got  into 
the  Presidential  chair  by  mistake  and  that  the  nation  was  being  de 
livered  over  to  conflagration,  while  this  modern  Nero  fiddled  upon  its 
ruins;  or  that,  on  the  other  hand,  he  should  have  been  thus  sketched 
by  as  high  authority  as  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson :  '  He  is  the  true  history 
of  the  American  people  to  his  time.  Step  by  step  he  walks  beside  them, 
quickening  his  march  by  theirs,  the  true  representative  of  this  continent, 
an  entirely  public  man,  Father  of  his  Country,  the  pulse  of  twenty 
millions  throbbing  through  his  heart,  the  thought  of  their  minds  articu 
lated  by  his  tongue.  His  heart  was  as  great  as  the  world,  but  there  was 
no  room  in  it  to  hold  the  memory  of  a  wrong.' "  WHITNEY  :  Life  on  the 
Circuit  with  Lincoln,  p.  147. 

"One  of  the  most  obvious  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  peculiarities  was  his 
dissimilitude  of  qualities,  or  inequality  of  conduct,  his  dignity  of  deport 
ment  and  action,  interspersed  with  freaks  of  frivolity  and  inanity ;  his 
high  aspiration  and  achievement,  and  his  descent  into  the  most  primitive 
vales  of  listlessness,  and  the  most  ridiculous  buffoonery.  He  combined 
the  consideration  of  the  movement  of  armies  or  grave  questions  of 
international  concern,  with  Nasby's  feeble  jokes  or  Dan  Rice's  clownish 
tricks.  In  the  chief  drawer  of  his  cabinet  table,  all  the  current  joke  books 
of  the  time  were  in  juxtaposition  with  official  commissions  lacking  only 
his  final  signature,  applications  for  pardons  from  death  penalties,  laws 
awaiting  executive  action,  and  orders,  which,  when  issued,  would  control 
the  fate  of  a  million  men  and  the  destinies  of  unborn  generations.  .  .  . 
Hence  it  was  that  superficial  persons,  who  expected  great  achievements 
to  be  set  in  a  mise  en  scene,  and  to  be  ushered  in  with  a  prologue,  could 
not  understand  or  appreciate  that  this  wonderful  man's  administration 
was  a  succession  of  acts  of  grand  and  heroic  statesmanship,  or  that  he 
was  a  prodigy  of  intellect  and  moral  force,  and  a  genius  in  administra 
tion."  WHITNEY:  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  pp.  147-48-49. 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     255 

fatalistic  philosophy  might  seem  the  reverse  of  scientific.  But 
the  natural  science  which  Lincoln  learned  from  Vestiges  of 
Creation,  while  it  would  have  been  repudiated  by  every  Baptist 
preacher  whom  Lincoln  ever  heard  in  his  youth,  was  capable 
of  being  grafted  upon  that  very  root. 

I  suggest  one  more  limitation  in  the  character  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  which  had  its  possible  relation  to  his  hypothetical 
church  membership.  He  was  possessed  in  marked  degree  of 
the  obstinacy  of  irresolution.  That  genial  good-nature  of  his 
had  behind  it  stubbornness,  irony,  and  a  sullen  but  mighty 
temper  which  rarely  broke  the  bounds  of  self-control,  but 
sometimes  manifested  itself  on  very  slight  provocation.  Just 
when  men  thought  they  had  discovered  in  Abraham  Lincoln  a 
nose  of  wax  which  they  could  shape  to  their  own  liking,  they 
encountered  in  him  a  wholly  unexpected  element  of  passive 
inertia  and  of  active  obstinacy.  When  he  did  not  know  what 
to  do,  he  would  not  do  anything.  It  was  this  quality  in  him 
which  enabled  him  to  rule  a  rampant  Cabinet  and  which  justi 
fied  the  qualities  set  forth  in  such  books  as  Major  Putnam's 
Abraham  Lincoln  the  Leader,  Richard  Watson  Gilder's  Lin 
coln  the  Leader,  and  Alonzo  Rothschild's  Lincoln,  Master  of 
Men.  It  was  this  which  enabled  Herndon  to  write  of  him: 
"  I  know  Abraham  Lincoln  better  than  he  knows  himself. 
.  .  .  You  and  I  must  keep  the  people  right;  God  will  keep 
Lincoln  right." 

Those  do  greatly  err  who  see  in  Lincoln  only  genial  good 
humor  and  teachableness;  there  was  a  point  at  which  his  good 
humor  became  withering  scorn  or  towering  passion  and  his 
gentle  and  tractable  disposition  became  adamantine  inertia. 
His  successor,  Andrew  Johnson,  quoted  as  characterizing  him 
self  the  lines  from  Sir  Walter  Scott : ' 

"  Come  one,  come  all;  this  rock  shall  -fly 
From  its  firm  base  as  soon  as  I!' 

Lincoln  might  with  much  more  appropriateness  have 
quoted  it  of  himself. 

Mary  Todd  Lincoln  united  with  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Springfield  on  April  13,  1852,  upon  profession  of 


256     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

her  faith.  The  church  records  contain  no  record  of  her  dis 
missal,  but  only  the  word  "  Deceased  "  without  a  date.  She 
remained  a  member  until  her  death,  though,  after  her  return 
to  Springfield  in  an  unhappy  state  of  mind,  she  was  not  a  very 
active  one.  The  only  other  Lincoln  record  on  the  books  of 
this  church  is  the  baptism  of  Thomas  Lincoln — "  Tad,"  "  son 
of  Abraham  and  Mary  " — on  April  4,  1855.  The  records  of 
the  financial  secretary,  not  very  complete,  show  Abraham  Lin 
coln  to  have  been  a  pew-holder  from  1852  to  1861,  and  he 
departed  for  Washington  with  his  pew  rent  paid  to  the  date  of 
his  departure.  This  is  all  that  is  to  be  learned  from  the  church 
records  in  Springfield. 

Mary  Todd  Lincoln  was  a  member  in  good  and  regular 
standing  of  the  Episcopal  Church  when  she  united  with  the 
Presbyterian,  but  she  united  on  profession  of  her  faith.  She 
affirmed  that  she  did  not  believe  that  she  had  ever  previously 
been  converted.  This  statement  is  one  of  several  indications 
that  she,  and  with  her  her  husband,  came  into  a  new  religious 
experience  after  the  death  of  Willie  in  Washington,  as  earlier 
he  had  been  profoundly  impressed  after  the  death  of  Eddie 
in  Springfield. 

We  learn  through  sources  outside  the  records,  but  wholly 
credible  sources,  that  her  uniting  with  the  Presbyterian  Church 
was  preceded  by  a  revival  in  the  church,  and  she  and  her  hus 
band  attended  the  revival  meetings  regularly.  Not  only  so,  but 
many  of  Lincoln's  associates,  including  Major  Stuart  and  other 
influential  men  of  Springfield,  were  present  almost  every  night 
and  were  deeply  interested.  The  letter  of  Thomas  Lewis, 
already  cited,  refers  to  the  general  expectation  that  Lincoln 
would  have  united  with  the  church  with  his  wife.  A  similar 
and  wholly  independent  report  comes  to  us  *  from  Lincoln's 
associates  outside  the  church.  They,  also,  expected  him  to  go 
in  with  his  wife.  But  Lincoln  was  not  fully  persuaded.  The 
logic  of  Dr.  Smith  demolished  all  the  arguments  of  the  in 
fidels  and  did  it  over  again : 

*Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  investigated  this  report,  and  told  me  of  it.  It 
comes  not  through  Lewis  or  other  members  of  the  church,  but  through 
Lincoln's  associates  outside  the  church,  who  seem  to  have  expected  him 
to  unite. 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH    257 

"  And  thrice  he  vanquished  all  his  foes, 
And  thrice  he  slew  the  slain." 

But  doubts,  though  logically  answered,  still  rose  in  Lincoln's 
mind.  On  the  other  hand,  and  more  important,  Lincoln  did 
not  find  himself  able  to  accept  the  rigid  Calvinism  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  that  day.  The  evangelist  made  strong 
appeals,  and  Lincoln  was  not  unmoved.  But  he  said  to  his 
friends  that  "  he  couldn't  quite  see  it." 

Lincoln  was  a  man  of  mighty  courage  when  his  convictions 
were  assured.  But  he  was  also  a  man  of  more  than  normal 
caution.  He  could  meet  an  issue  which  he  was  fully  convinced 
was  right  with  all  needful  heroism.  But  he  was  capable  of 
evading  an  issue  about  which  he  was  uncertain. 

We  know  what  Lincoln  did  just  after  his  State  Fair  speech 
in  Springfield  on  October  3,  1854.  He  was  roused  "  as  never 
before,"  to  quote  his  own  words,  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  he  came  out  in  a  four  hours'  speech  following 
Douglas,  and  committed  himself  unqualifiedly  to  the  anti- 
Nebraska  program.  The  Abolitionists  were  overjoyed,  and 
Lovejoy  wanted  him  to  address  that  body  that  very  night. 
Lincoln  was  in  a  quandary.  To  offend  the  Abolitionists  meant 
political  death,  for  they  were  now  strong  and  growing 
stronger;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  to  become  an  Abolitionist 
meant  political  death  also  at  that  stage  of  the  fight.  Herndon, 
who  was  himself  an  Abolitionist,  and  not  much  given  to  com 
promise,  fully  realized  that  Lincoln  was  in  grave  political 
danger.5  With  Herndon's  approval,  Lincoln  took  Bob  in  his 
buggy  and  drove  off  out  into  the  country  till  the  crisis  was 
over.6 

5  "  He  had  not  then  announced  himself  for  freedom,  only  discussed 
the  inexpediency  of  repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise  line.     The  Abo 
litionists  that  day   [the  day  of  Lincoln's  State  Fair  speech]   determined 
to  make  Lincoln  take  a  stand.    I  determined  he  should  not  at  that  time, 
because  the  time  had  not  yet  come  when  Lincoln  should  show  his  hand. 
When  Lovejoy  announced  the  abolition  gathering  in  the  evening,  I  rushed 
to  Lincoln,  and  said :  *  Lincoln,  go  home,  take  Bob  and  the  buggy,  and 
leave  the  country,  go  quickly,  go  right  off,  and  never  mind  the  order  of 
your  going/     Lincoln  took  the  hint,  got  his  horse  and  buggy,  and  did 
leave  quickly,  not  noting  the  order  of  his  going.    He  stayed  away  till  all 
conventions  and  fairs  were  over."     HERNDON,  in  LAMON,  p.  354. 

6  Lincoln's  evasion  of  an  issue  which  he  did  not  wish  to  meet  was 


258     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

We  know  something  also,  though  probably  not  the  whole 
truth,  about  Lincoln's  wavering  indecision  with  respect  to  his 
marriage  to  Mary  Todd.  Whether  he  ran  away  from  his  own 
wedding,  as  he  ran  away  from  the  offer  of  the  leadership  of 
the  Abolition  movement,  and  if  so,  whether  he  was  sane  or 
insane  at  the  time,  are  questions  which  I  prefer  not,  at  this 
time,  to  undertake  to  answer.  But  that  incident  may  be  cited 
as  another  reminder  that  Lincoln  had  times  of  great  mental 
uncertainty,  and  that  at  such  times  he  sometimes  did  unex 
pected  things. 

It  is  my  firm  conviction  that,  after  the  death  of  Eddie, 
Lincoln  was  profoundly  stirred  in  his  own  spiritual  life;  that 
the  arguments  of  Dr.  Smith  went  far  toward  answering  the 
arguments  of  Paine,  Volney,  and  his  f reethinking  friends ;  that 
bereavement  and  spiritual  comfort  had  done  their  work  of 
grace;  that  the  desire  for  a  home  more  truly  united  in  its 
religious  relations  and  spiritual  sympathies  made  a  strong  ap 
peal  to  him;  and  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  revival  seemed  to 
make  it  easy  and  natural  for  him  to  enter  the  church  with 
Mrs.  Lincoln.  But,  though  a  Calvinist  in  his  early  training,  he 
was  not  ready  to  accept  Calvinism  as  a  complete  and  articu 
lated  system  as  presented  in  the  Westminster  Confession  and 
in  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Smith. 

He  wavered.  Whether  he  left  town  to  avoid  pressure  to 
attend  the  meeting  of  the  Session  at  which  his  wife  made  her 
application  for  church  membership,  we  do  not  know.  It  is  not 
improbable.  Certainly  if  his  absence  had  been  unavoidable 
he  could  have  joined  at  the  next  opportunity.  I  think  that  he 
did  not  join  because  he  was  still  in  some  measure  of  intellectual 
uncertainty  with  refeience  to  doctrinal  matters.  I  am  only 
sorry  that  someone  did  not  tell  him  that  these  were  no  sufficient 
reasons  for  his  declining  to  unite  with  the  church. 

put  to  a  severe  test  in  1864,  when  the  convention  that  renominated  him 
for  the  Presidency  had  to  decide  whether  to  renominate  also  Vice-Presi 
dent  Hamlin.  Lincoln  liked  Hamlin ;  but,  while  a  Vice-President  from 
Maine  had  strengthened  the  ticket  in  1860,  a  war  Democrat  from  one  of 
the  border  States  could  help  it  more  in  1864.  Lincoln  managed  never  to 
let  it  be  known  whether  he  favored  Hamlin,  who  greatly  desired  his 
support,  or  whether,  as  was  probably  the  case,  he  preferred  Johnson. 
He  was  skillful  in  evasion  when  he  chose  to  be  so. 


WHY  HE  DID  NOT  JOIN  CHURCH     259 

It  would  be  possible  to  carry  this  study  further,  but  it  is 
not  necessary.  An  explanation  of  Lincoln's  failure  to  unite 
with  a  Christian  church  in  that  time  of  bitter  sectarianism 
when  to  have  joined  one  church  would  have  made  him  a  target 
for  criticism  from  others  and  when  his  mind  was  intent  rather 
upon  the  application  of  his  Christian  principles  than  the  proc 
lamation  of  his  religious  opinions,  is  partly  to  be  attributed  to 
the  faults  of  the  churches;  but  a  portion  of  the  explanation 
is  to  be  found  also  in  qualities  inherent  in  the  life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT 

WE  are  ready  now  to  undertake  the  difficult  task  of  deter 
mining  with  some  approach  to  certainty  the  essential  content 
and  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  religious  belief. 

We  must  not  be  surprised  if  we  find  ourselves  unable  to 
construct  a  perfectly  symmetrical  and  consistent  confession  of 
faith.  The  material  is  much  more  abundant  and  explicit  and 
much  better  attested  in  some  departments  than  in  others.  Not 
only  so,  but  we  must  never  forget  the  mighty  elements  of  con 
tradiction  in  Lincoln's  personality. 

Mediocre  men  have  this  in  their  favor,  that  it  is  relatively 
easy  to  classify  them.  Not  only  may  they  be  readily  assigned 
to  their  several  occupations,  and  conveniently  pigeon-holed  as 
butchers,  bakers,  and  candlestick  makers,  but  it  is  a  compara 
tively  simple  task  to  group  them  under  single  adjectives,  as 
good  and  bad,  black  and  white,  tall  and  short,  fat  and  lean, 
old  and  young,  intelligent  and  stupid.  The  process  is  less  easy 
with  really  great  men.  There  is  always  an  admirable  element 
of  human  inconsistency  in  men  of  large  mold  which  would  be 
intolerable  in  lesser  personalities.  It  has  been  truly  said  that 
no  man  becomes  really  great  and  influential  who  is  not  a  good 
subject  for  caricature.  The  sublime  is  own  sister  to  the  ridicu 
lous.  Genius  is  next  akin  to  insanity.  The  men  who  do  really 
great  things  are  a  perpetual  puzzle  to  those  who  possess  only 
commonplace  standards  of  classification.  A  commonplace  vil 
lain  is  a  villain,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time;  but  a  villain  like 
Milton's  Satan,  Napoleon,  or  the  late  German  Kaiser  is  so 
great  a  villain  as  to  be  half  a  hero.  The  two  hundred  seventy- 
six  dripping  men  who  struggled  through  the  surf  at  Malta  one 
stormy  morning  rather  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago 
and  gathered  shivering  round  the  fire,  were  quickly  classified, 

260 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT    261 

for  the  most  part,  into  four  convenient  companies,  of  sailors, 
soldiers,  passengers,  and  prisoners;  but  when  one  of  them 
shook  off  a  viper  into  the  fire  and  showed  no  sign  of  hurt,  it 
was  quite  certain  that  he  was  either  a  murderer  or  a  god. 
Opinions  might  differ  and  did  differ  as  to  which  of  the  two 
extremes  might  properly  be  claimed  for  him,  but  no  one  pro 
posed  to  find  a  place  for  him  in  middle  ground. 

The  strength  of  great  men  lies  in  their  possession  and  their 
counterpoise  of  opposing  qualities.  Over  against  the  monoto 
nous  uniformity,  the  stupid  consistency,  of  those  common 
people  whom  Lincoln  said  God  must  love  because  He  made 
so  many  of  them,  this  quality  displays  itself  as  a  peculiar  pos 
session  of  genius.  Now  and  then  it  is  given  to  a  great  man 
sufficiently  so  to  subordinate  the  inconsistencies  without  which 
real  greatness  could  not  exist  as  to  incarnate  some  outstanding 
principle  of  which  he  becomes  the  exponent.  Abraham  Lincoln 
did  this;  and  the  world,  or  that  small  part  of  the  world  which 
can  lay  claim  to  any  considerable  measure  of  moral  discern 
ment,  has  redefined  its  conception  of  certain  high  qualities,  its 
measure  of  the  moral  significance  of  certain  notable  achieve 
ments,  in  terms  of  his  personality.  This  process  is  highly 
desirable  as  well  as  inevitable;  but  the  elements  of  incon 
sistency  are  not  thereby  removed  from  the  character  itself. 
Of  him  we  might  say : 

"  His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
And  say  to  all  the  world:  This  was  a  man! " 

— Julius  Caesar,  V ,  5. 

It  has  often  been  affirmed  that  "  Lincoln  knew  his  Bible 
better  than  any  minister,"  and  large  claims  have  been  made  con 
cerning  his  use  of  it  in  public  addresses.  Mr.  Lincoln  did 
know  and  use  the  Bible,  and  his  style  is  saturated  with  it ;  but  it 
would  be  easy  to  exaggerate  both  his  knowledge  and  use  of  it. 

Prof.  Daniel  Kilham  Dodge  of  the  University  of  Illinois 
examined  twenty-five  of  Lincoln's  extended  and  carefully  pre 
pared  addresses  with  this  result :  * 

1  Abraham  Lincoln;  Evolution  of  His  Literary  Style.  By  Daniel 
Kilham  Dodge.  Press  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  1900. 


262    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

In  five  speeches  from  1839  to  1852  he  found  six  Biblical 
quotations,  of  which  four  were  in  his  temperance  address. 

In  his  reply  to  Douglas  in  1852  there  were  two  Biblical 
quotations,  both  from  the  Old  Testament. 

In  1856  he  found  one,  and  that  most  notable  of  all — the 
"  house  divided  against  itself." 

In  his  "  lost  speech  "  at  Bloomington,  as  recorded  by  Whit 
ney,  there  were  six  Biblical  quotations,  four  from  the  Old 
Testament  and  two  from  the  New — the  largest  number  in  any 
single  speech. 

In  his  ten  speeches  in  the  Lincoln  and  Douglas  debates 
there  were  two  Biblical  references,  besides  a  number  of  al 
lusions  to  the  "  house  divided  against  itself." 

There  were  no  Biblical  quotations  in  the  Cooper  Union 
address  or  in  the  First  Inaugural  or  in  the  Gettysburg  address ; 
none  in  the  two  messages  to  Congress  in  1861. 

His  Second  Inaugural  was  itself  a  kind  of  leaf  out  of  the 
books  of  the  prophets. 

In  the  whole  of  the  twenty-five  speeches,  there  were  found 
twenty-two  Biblical  references,  eight  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
fourteen  in  the  New.  This  notwithstanding  the  impression  of 
many  who  knew  him  that  Lincoln  preferred  the  Old  Testa 
ment  to  the  New,  as  recorded  by  Noah  Brooks. 

But  this  rather  meager  use  of  direct  quotations  and  al 
lusions  need  not  disappoint  us.  Nor  does  it  militate  against 
the  essentially  Biblical  substratum  of  his  style.  When  we 
come  to  the  study  of  Lincoln's  literary  and  oratorical  method, 
we  find  more  striking  contradictions  and  evolutions  than  we 
have  here.  Lincoln's  oratory  was  not  of  the  same  style  at 
all  periods  of  his  career,  nor  were  his  methods  uniform  at 
any  one  period. 

He  was  a  ready  stump-speaker,  yet  he  became  so  cautious 
while  in  the  White  House  that  he  was  timid  about  responding 
even  to  a  serenade  without  having  first  written  out  his  address, 
and  on  occasion  could  appear  rude  in  declining  to  utter  even  a 
simple  word  of  greeting  and  appreciation,  as  on  the  night 
before  his  address  in  Gettysburg,  when  he  was  very  abrupt  to 
the  company  that  serenaded  him. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     263 

He  had  been  accustomed  to  large  use  of  gesture,  swinging 
his  great  arms,  and  sometimes,  even  in  the  Douglas  debates, 
bending  his  knees  till  they  almost  touched  the  platform,  and 
then  rising  suddenly  almost  with  a  whoop,  but  he  became  very 
quiet  and  self -restrained  in  his  oratory. 

He  is  alleged  to  have  loved  Burns  more  than  any  other  poet, 
yet  his  speeches  have  been  searched  in  vain  for  a  single  quo 
tation  from  Burns.  It  is  said  that  next  to  Burns  he  loved 
Byron,  and  he  is  not  known  ever  to  have  quoted  Byron  in  any 
speech  or  paper.  It  is  said  that  his  favorite  Shakspeare  play 
was  Richard  III.,  but  his  Shakspeare  quotations  are  from 
Hamlet,  Lear,  Macbeth,  the  Merchant  of  Venice;  and  there  is 
one  allusion  to  FalstafT . 

Besides  Shakspeare,  whom  he  quoted  next  to  the  Bible, 
his  literary  allusions  are  to  T.  H.  Bayley,  Dickens,  Robert 
Herrick,  Pope  and  Scott,  and  they  are  not  numerous.  The 
total  number  of  his  quotations,  as  listed  by  Professor  Dodge, 
including  Shakspeare,  but  not  including  the  Bible,  is  thirty. 

What  is  more  surprising,  Lincoln  was  known  as  a  great 
story  teller.  But  his  addresses  contain  hardly  a  single  anec 
dote.  He  told  stories  in  jury  trials  and  to  illustrate  points  in 
conversation,  but  he  rarely  told  them  in  his  addresses.2 

No  man  who  knew  Lincoln  intimately  studied  him  so  long, 
so  industriously,  or,  in  spite  of  many  limitations,  so  appre 
ciatively,  as  William  H.  Herndon.  He  was  a  profound  be 
liever  in  the  mental  and  spiritual  evolution  of  Lincoln. 

In  1887,  while  Herndon,  after  many  years  of  interruption, 
began  again  the  preparation  of  his  Life  of  Lincoln,  he  had  an 
extended  correspondence,  partly  from  Springfield,  and  partly 
from  Greencastle,  Indiana,  where  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  was  at 
work  with  him  on  his  book,  and  with  a  Boston  sculptor,  Mr. 

2  Few  writers  who  knew  Lincoln  intimately  have  given  us  more  de 
tailed  accounts  of  Lincoln's  career  as  a  story  teller  than  his  friend  and 
associate,  Major  Henry  C.  Whitney,  who  habitually  shared  his  bed  in 
the  rounds  of  the  Eighth  Judicial  Circuit.  In  his  chapter  on  "  Lincoln 
as  a  Merry  Andrew,"  in  which  he  tells  the  undignified  length  to  which 
these  bouts  of  story  telling  were  wont  to  go,  he  says :  "  But  it  is  a  singular 
fact  that  Lincoln  very  rarely  told  stories  in  his  speeches.  In  both  his 
forensic  and  political  speeches  he  got  down  to  serious  business,  and  threw 
away  the  mask  of  Momus  altogether.  I  never  heard  him  narrate  but 
one  story  in  a  speech."  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  p.  179. 


264     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Truman  H.  Bartlett,  who  was  planning  a  statue  of  Lincoln. 
Herndon's  letters  went  more  and  more  into  detail  as  the  cor 
respondence  proceeded,  and  he  gave  in  some  respects  the  very 
best  affirmation  of  the  development  of  Lincoln  on  the  higher 
side  of  his  nature  that  Herndon  wrote  at  any  time. 

Herndon  seemed  to  have  some  apprehension  that  a  study 
of  photographs  and  life-masks  and  other  evidences  of  the 
physical  appearance  of  Lincoln  would  not  reveal  the  man  him 
self.  He  said  that  a  person  studying  his  physical  nature  would 
say  "  that  his  physical  nature  was  low,  coarse,  and  not  high 
and  fine."  Before  he  sent  this  letter  he  re-read  it,  and  inserted 
the  word  "  comparatively  "  before  "  low."  Mr.  Bartlett  asked 
him  further  about  this,  and  Herndon  went  into  detail  as  to 
Lincoln's  body.  "  His  blood  ran  slowly.  He  was  of  a  low  or 
slow  mechanical  power,  within  him.  I  did  not  intend  to  say 
that  Lincoln's  organization  was  a  low,  animal  organization. 
What  I  meant  to  say  was  that  it  was  a  slow-working  machine. 
Lincoln's  flesh  was  coarse,  pimply,  dry,  hard,  harsh;  color 
of  his  flesh  saffron  brown;  no  blood  seemingly  in  it;  flesh 
wrinkled." 

Mr.  Bartlett  apparently  inquired  whether  the  abnormal 
qualities  of  frontier  life  produced  these  effects,  and  whether 
Herndon  had  known  other  men  of  the  Lincoln  type.  Ap 
parently  he  alluded  to  the  presence  of  malaria  and  the  large 
use  of  pork  in  frontier  diet. 

Herndon  did  not  accept  the  pork  and  malaria  theories.  He 
said  that  all  such  theories  must  give  way  to  facts,  and  he  dealt 
with  facts.  The  men  of  the  frontier  had  the  best  meat  in 
the  world,  "  venison,  bear,  turkey,  and  of  course  some  hog." 

"  You  ask  me  if  I  ever  saw  in  this  great  wild  west  many 
men  of  Lincoln's  type,  and  to  which  I  answer,  Yes.  The  first 
settlers  of  central  and  southern  Illinois  were  men  of  that  type. 
They  came  from  the  limestone  regions  of  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
and  Tennessee,  and  were  men  of  giant  strength,  physical  force, 
and  by  nature  mentally  strong.  They  were  original,  were  in 
dividualists.  The  strong  alone  from  1818  to  1830  could  get 
here,  and  the  strong  alone  could  survive  here.  .  .  .  No  one 
was  like  Lincoln,  and  yet  many  were  of  his  type.  .  .  .  He 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT    265 

was,  as  you  say,  '  a  man  of  extraordinary  contrasts/     You 
would  not  look  for  a  well-rounded  man  in  such  a  description." 

Lincoln  was,  then,  as  Herndon  saw  him,  and  as  the  world 
must  see  him,  a  legitimate  product  of  his  environment.  Hern 
don  had  read  Buckle  and  Spencer  and  Darwin,  and  was  a 
thoroughgoing  believer  in  evolution,  as  was  Lincoln,  from  a 
far  narrower  reading,  but  a  very  thoughtful  study  of  Vestiges 
of  Creation. 

Physically,  Lincoln  was  akin  to  the  strong  pioneers  of 
early  Illinois,  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  find  each  several  trait 
of  Lincoln  reduplicated  in  many  of  them.  But  Lincoln  himself 
was  never  duplicated.  He  was  a  product  of  his  environment, 
but  he  was  also  an  evolution  which  in  terms  of  an  individual 
personality  went  beyond  environment,  and  was  still  going  for 
ward  when  death  came  to  him. 

This  evolution  of  Lincoln,  the  spiritual  Lincoln,  as  por 
trayed  in  these  letters  to  a  sculptor,  who  must  not  be  permitted 
to  forget,  if  he  was  in  danger  of  forgetting,  that  the  real  man 
Lincoln  had  in  him  more  than  his  bodily  measurements  could 
portray,  is  one  of  the  most  suggestive  studies  disclosed  by 
Herndon,  and  it  is  sound,  both  as  approached  from  the  stand 
point  of  science,  and  as  considered  in  the  personal  study  of 
Lincoln  in  his  growth  from  year  to  year. 

Like  St.  Paul,  Lincoln  had  a  warfare  in  his  members.  He 
was  an  embodiment  of  forces  mutually  antagonistic.  He 
would  not  have  been  the  man  he  was  had  either  of  them  been 
lacking,  and  the  growth  of  either  at  the  total  expense  of  the 
other  would  have  given  us  a  man  abnormal,  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  perilously  near  to  being.  But  his  real  development  was 
mental  and  spiritual. 

In  another  place  St.  Paul  says  that  "  The  first  man  is  of 
the  earth,  earthy,  and  the  second  man  is  from  heaven."  It 
has  been  assumed  without  due  warrant  that  what  he  had  in 
mind  was  a  contrast  between  Adam  and  Christ,  and  this  view 
is  strengthened  by  the  intrusion  of  the  words  "  the  Lord  "  in 
the  authorized  English  text.  But  it  is  quite  possible  that  St. 
Paul,  even  if  Adam  and  Christ  were  a  part  of  his  contrast, 


266     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

had  really  in  mind  the  evolution  of  any  man's  life;  he  being 
himself  in  his  bodily  nature  the  first  man  and  in  the  birth  and 
growth  of  his  higher  nature  the  second  and  contrasting  man. 
"  First  is  that  which  is  natural,  and  after,  that  which  is 
spiritual." 

This  was  Herndon's  thought  of  Lincoln,  as  disclosed  in 
these  letters,3  and  it  is  true  of  Lincoln.  Lincoln  was  more 
than  an  embodiment  of  contrasts;  the  solar  system  is  that,  and 
it  is  more.  In  the  solar  system  the  opposing  forces  do  not 
neutralize  each  other,  but  together  hold  the  earth  and  planets 
in  their  orbits.  So  it  was  with  Lincoln.  But  with  him  the 
higher  and  nobler  forces  became  increasingly  dominant. 

Herndon  resented  it  when  anyone  said  that  Lincoln  had 
died  at  the  right  time.  He  believed  that,  great  as  Lincoln  was, 
his  nobler  qualities  had  not  yet  come  to  their  full  maturity, 
and  that  a  longer-lived  Lincoln  would  have  been  an  even 
nobler  Lincoln.  Here  are  some  of  the  things  he  says  of  him 
in  these  letters : 

"  I  said  to  you  once  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  arrived  at 
maturity  in  1865,  and  I  say  so  now.  His  blood  ran  slowly — 
had  low  or  slow  circulation  and  consequently  a  slow  build-up. 
As  he  had  a  slow  build-up,  so  he  had  a  slow  development ;  he 
grew  up  like  the  forest  oak,  tough,  solid,  knotty,  gnarled, 
standing  out  with  power  against  the  storm,  and  almost  defying 
the  lightning.  Hence  I  conclude  that  he  had  not  arrived  at  his 
highest  development  in  1865.  .  .  .  The  convolutions  of  his 
brain  were  long;  they  did  not  snap  off  quickly  like  a  short, 
thick  man's  brain.  .  .  .  The  enduring  power  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  thought  and  brain  was  wonderful.  He  could  sit  and 
think  without  food  or  rest  longer  than  any  man  I  ever  saw." 

He  goes  into  detail  concerning  Mr.  Lincoln's  bodily 
lethargy  and  its  effect  on  body  and  mind,  the  sluggishness  of 
all  his  functions,  and  affirms  that  this  must  be  taken  into  ac 
count  in  any  right  estimate  of  the  man;  but  that  steadily,  and 
the  more  surely  because  slowly,  his  mind  and  soul  developed 
and  became  more  and  more  dominant. 

3  These  letters  have  lately  been  presented  to  the  Massachusetts  His 
torical  Society. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     267 

"His  flesh  looked  dry  and  leathery,  tough  and  everlasting ; 
his  eyes  were  small  and  gray ;  head  small  and  forehead  reced 
ing;  but  when  this  great  man  was  moved  by  some  great  and 
good  feeling,  by  some  idea  of  Liberty,  or  Justice,  or  Right, 
then  he  seemed  an  inspired  man.  It  was  just  then  that  Lin 
coln's  nature  was  beautiful,  and  in  complete  harmony  with 
the  laws  of  the  Great  Eternal.  I  have  seen  him  in  this  in 
spired  condition,  and  thought  he  was  molded  in  the  Spirit's 
best  mold.  Lincoln  was  a  great  man,  a  good  man,  and  a  pure 
man ;  and  beneath  his  rough  bodily  exterior,  Nature  wove  her 
fine  network  of  nerve.  .  .  .  Lincoln  was  a  gloomy  man  at 
one  moment  and  a  joyous  man  the  next;  he  was  conscious 
that  a  terrible  fate  awaited  him.  He  said  to  me,  '  I  cannot  help 
but  believe  that  I  shall  meet  with  some  terrible  end.'  This  idea 
seized  him  and  made  him  gloomy.  At  times  his  better  nature 
would  get  the  mastery  of  him,  and  he  would  be  happy  till  the 
shadow  of  his  fate  flitted  before  him.  In  philosophy  Lincoln 
was  a  fatalist.  ...  In  my  poor  opinion,  Lincoln  had  not 
arrived,  when  he  was  assassinated,  at  the  meridian  of  his  in 
tellectual  power.  .  .  .  Were  you  to  read  his  early  speeches 
thoroughly  you  would  see  his  then  coarse  nature.  He  grad 
ually  rose  up,  more  spiritualistic.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  I  say  that  Lincoln  was  not  fully  developed  in  mind  at  the 
last.  When  a  great  Boston  man  said,  '  Lincoln  died  at  the 
right  time,'  he  did  not  know  what  he  was  talking  about." 

In  these  and  like  paragraphs  Herndon  testified  to  the 
mental  and  spiritual  evolution  of  Lincoln;  and  he  was  prob 
ably  correct  when  he  opined  that  that  evolution  was  still  in 
process,  and  that  Lincoln  was,  up  to  the  very  hour  of  his 
death,  a  growing  man  in  all  that  meant  most  to  America  and 
the  world. 

The  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  part  and  parcel  of 
his  life;  and  his  life  was  an  evolution  whose  successive  stages 
can  be  measured  with  reasonable  certainty.  Not  only  did  his 
religious  convictions  develop  and  broaden  under  the  stimuli  of 
Lincoln's  constantly  broadening  intellectual  and  spiritual  en 
vironment,  but  they  broadened  in  the  growth  of  his  own 
personality. 

There  was  an  evolution  in  his  apprehension  of  the  ethical 


268     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

implications  of  public  office.  The  Lincoln  who  re-entered 
politics  after  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  a 
changed  man  from  the  Lincoln  who,  with  the  other  members 
of  the  "  Long  Nine,"  earned  by  political  log-rolling  the  severe 
but  not  wholly  unmerited  name  applied  to  them  by  one  of 
Illinois'  best  governors,  "  spared  monuments  of  popular 
wrath."  That  Lincoln  did  not  in  this  earlier  period  commit 
any  personally  dishonorable  act  is  not  an  argument  against 
the  theory  here  advocated.  He  had,  in  his  later  political  career, 
a  far  higher  ideal  of  political  honor,  a  greatly  nobler  conception 
of  the  dignity  of  public  office — which  he  always  sought — as  a 
field  of  popular  service.  His  political  career  was  an  evolution, 
and  it  developed  nobler  characteristics  than  that  which  char 
acterized  his  earlier  political  life. 

Lincoln's  emancipation  policy  was  an  evolution.  The  suc 
cessive  stages  of  that  policy  were  worthily  set  forth  by  Paul 
Selby  in  an  address  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Chicago.4 
There  never  was  a  time  when  Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  believe 
slavery  to  be  wrong,  but  there  was  a  time  when  he  was  not  an 
Abolitionist.  The  moral  aspect  of  the  slavery  question  grew 
in  his  mind  and  conscience  till  he  promised  his  God  to  free 
the  slaves. 

On  Sunday  evening,  September  7,  1862,  a  public  meeting 
was  held  in  Bryan  Hall,  Chicago,  to  urge  upon  the  President 
the  desire  of  Christian  people  that  he  should  free  the  slaves, 
A  petition  was  circulated,  and  was  signed  by  all  the  Congre 
gational  and  nearly  all  the  Methodist  and  Baptist  ministers  of 
that  city,  courteously  requesting  the  President  to  give  the 
matter  his  earnest  attention.  The  petition  was  sent  to  Wash 
ington  by  the  hand  of  Rev.  William  W.  Patton  and  Rev.  John 
Dempster,  who  met  the  President  by  appointment  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  September  13,  the  interview  being  arranged  by 
Hon.  Gideon  Welles. 

The  story  of  that  meeting  has  often  been  told  in  part,  with 
undue  emphasis  upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  statement  then  made  that 
if  God  had  a  message  for  him  on  this  subject  He  would  be 

4  Abraham  Lincoln;  The  Evolution  of  His  Emancipation  Policy.  An 
address  delivered  before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  February  27, 
1906. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     269 

more  likely  to  communicate  it  directly  to  Mr.  Lincoln  than  to 
others  for  him.  The  latest  book  to  misuse  this  incident  is  one 
just  from  the  press  in  Great  Britain,  the  Short  Life  of  Lin 
coln,  by  Hon.  Ralph  Shirley,  who  says: 

"  Some  of  the  ministers  in  this  deputation  even  went  so 
far  as  to  assure  him  that  they  had  authority  in  God's  name  to 
command  him  to  emancipate  the  slaves." 

Inasmuch  as  there  were  but  two  of  the  ministers,  and 
neither  of  them  assumed  any  such  authority  to  speak  the  mind 
of  God,  such  statements  ought  to  cease,  especially  as  the  true 
story,  from  which  all  these  accounts  are  garbled,  is  available 
for  inspection  in  the  files  of  the  Maryland  Historical  Society. 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  say  to  them  that  he  hoped  it  would  not 
appear  irreverent  in  him  to  say  that  if  God  were  to  reveal 
this  duty  of  his  to  others,  it  was  probable  that  He  would 
reveal  it  also  directly  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  interview  he  was  guarded ;  but  as  he  found  common  ground 
with  his  visitors,  he  threw  first  one  leg  and  then  the  other  over 
the  arm  of  his  chair,  and  talked  to  them  with  the  utmost  free 
dom,  and  asked  them  concerning  the  opinion  of  ministers  and 
churches,  and  assured  them  that  he  desired  to  know  the  will 
of  God,  and  whatever  seemed  to  him  to  be  God's  will  he 
would  do. 

The  next  week  occurred  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  on 
Saturday,  September  20,  exactly  a  week  after  his  interview 
with  the  Chicago  ministers,  Mr.  Lincoln  called  the  Cabinet 
together  and  read  to  them  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
which  was  signed  and  published  on  the  following  Monday. 
We  know  now  that  Lincoln  had  promised  God  that  if  that 
battle  resulted  in  the  success  of  the  Union  cause  he  would 
issue  the  proclamation.  We  also  know  that  the  meeting  with 
the  Chicago  ministers  was  very  timely,  and  gave  him  an  added 
assurance  of  moral  support  from  the  churches,  if  not  added 
confidence  in  the  help  of  God. 

Some  time  after,  Joseph  Medill,  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  returning  from  Washington,  said,  "  Secretary  Stan- 


270    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ton  told  me  to  say  to  those  Chicago  clergymen  who  waited 
on  the  President  about  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  that 
their  interview  finished  the  business.  After  that  there  was  no 
manifestation  of  doubt  or  talk  of  delay.  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind 
was  fully  made  up." — Proceedings  of  the  Maryland  Historical 
Society,  Baltimore,  1888. 

Lincoln's  literary  style  was  an  evolution.5  His  spread- 
eagle  stump-speeches,  with  their  florid  rhetoric  and  grandilo 
quent  figures  of  speech  evolved  into  the  calm,  dignified,  and 
forceful  English  of  his  maturer  years.6  An  able  monograph 
in  which  this  evolution  is  traced  is  cited  elsewhere  in  this 
volume.7  That  change  of  style  was  the  outward  and  visible 
sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual  grace. 

In  like  manner  Lincoln's  religion  was  an  evolution,  both  in 
its  intellectual  and  its  spiritual  qualities.  Up  to  the  time  of  his 
residence  in  New  Salem  he  had  heard  only  the  dogmatic  sec 
tarianism  of  unlettered  preachers,  proclaiming  a  creed  which 
furnished  him  certain  lifelong  tenets  but  which  as  a  whole  he 
could  not  accept.  At  New  Salem  he  read  the  negative  argu 
ments  which  confuted  the  dogmas  he  had  heard,  and  perhaps 
unwittingly  made  room  for  a  more  intelligent  faith. 

He  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  argument  of  Dr.  Smith  in 
his  The  Christian's  Defence.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had 
heard  the  Christian  apologetic  rationally  presented,  and  it 
made  a  lasting  impression  upon  him  without,  however,  fully 
satisfying  him.  He  was,  however,  a  much  more  religious  man 

5  See  The  Evolution  of  Lincoln's  Literary  Style,  by  Prof.  Daniel 
Kilham  Dodge.  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1900. 

6 "  By  reference  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  early  political  and  literary  per 
formances  it  will  appear  that  he  was  more  than  usually  addicted  to  a 
florid  style,  and  to  greatly  exaggerated  figures  of  speech ;  that  the  plain, 
direct,  homely,  common-sense  methods  of  his  later  and  statesmanlike 
years  were  wholly  wanting.  Rhodomontade  was  as  common  in  those 
youthful  productions  as  plain  assertion  was  in  his  mature  life.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at  that,  in  the  years  of  his  adolescence, 
he  is  credited  with  very  decided  opinions,  radical  views,  and  florid  ex 
pressions  on  the  subject  of  religion;  but  he  was  forty-five  years  of  age 
when  I  first  knew  him,  and  his  views  either  underwent  a  change  or  else 
he  had  grown  reticent  on  that  great  subject.  Certain  it  is  that  I  never 
heard  Lincoln  express  himself  on  the  subject  of  religion  at  all."  WHIT 


NEY  :  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  p.  268. 

7  The  Evolution  of  Lincoln's  Literary  Style,  by 


Prof.  D.  K.  Dodge. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     271 

when  he  left  Springfield  than  he  was  when  he  came  to  it, 
whether  he  knew  it  or  not. 

The  solemn  responsibilities  qf  his  office,  the  daily  con 
templation  of  death  as  it  menaced  him  and  came  into  the  homes 
of  the  people  of  his  country,  the  profound  conviction  that  God 
was  working  His  infinite  purpose  through  the  war,  and  through 
the  human  agency  of  Lincoln  himself,  took  hold  of  the  deepest 
impulses  of  his  nature,  and  became  the  controlling  forces  of 
his  policy. 

Lincoln  was  no  theologian,  but  I  do  not  find  any  authority 
for  the  statement  of  Mr.  Binns  that  Lincoln  said,  "  the  more  a 
man  knew  of  theology,  the  farther  he  got  away  from  the 
Spirit  of  Christ."  It  is  possible,  of  course,  for  a  man  to  learn 
theology  as  an  intellectual  system  and  to  have  little  religion  as 
a  spiritual  experience,  and  to  lose  that  little  in  the  process  of  his 
logical  subtleties :  but  Lincoln  was  too  just  a  man  to  make  so 
sweeping  and  unjust  an  affirmation  of  something  of  which  he 
would  certainly  have  admitted  he  knew  very  little. 

The  rock-bottom  foundation  of  Abraham  Lincoln's 
religious  faith  was  the  ultra-Calvinism  of  his  boyhood.  He 
was  reared  a  Predestinarian  Baptist;  and  while  he  never 
became  a  Baptist  he  never  ceased  to  be  a  Predestinarian.  To 
this  he  added  a  strong  rationalistic  tendency,  inherent  in  his 
nature,  and  strengthened  by  his  study  of  Paine  and  Volney. 
This  also  he  never  wholly  outgrew.  As  a  lawyer  who  was  not 
well  read,  pleading  before  juries  that  cared  little  for  the  letter 
of  the  law,  he  was  accustomed  to  reduce  his  cases  to  simple 
principles  of  elementary  justice,  and  to  rest  all  upon  these 
principles.  This  habit  of  thought  and  practice  he  applied  also 
to  his  theology.  His  early  recollection  of  the  epitaph  of 
Johnny  Kongapod  was  nothing  less  than  the  application  of  the 
Golden  Rule  to  theology — the  assurance  of  an  eternal  justice 
throned  in  heaven  and  intelligible  on  earth. 

Thus,  when  he  argued  in  favor  of  universal  salvation  he 
did  it  upon  the  basis  of  the  old  Calvinistic  theology  with  which 
he  had  been  familiar  all  his  life.  If  God  was,  indeed,  absolute 
sovereign,  and  as  good  as  He  was  great,  and  willed  not  that 
any  should  perish,  then  no  one  could  finally  perish.  Universal 


272     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

salvation  became  logically  and  ethically  compulsory.  The 
Christ  who  tasted  death  for  every  man,  did  so  as  the  necessary 
means  to  the  efficiency  of  a  plan  of  salvation  whereby  the  curse 
of  the  fall  was  fully  offset  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  at  the 
instance  of  the  sovereign  will  of  God.  As  in  Adam  all  died, 
even  so  in  Christ  were  all  made  alive.  His  theory  of  universal 
salvation  was  the  logical  expression  of  his  determinism,  in 
fluenced  by  his  rationalism  and  confirmed  by  his  appeal  to  a 
justice  that  would  not  accept  a  fall  more  universal  than  the 
atonement  of  Christ.  This  was  not  because  Lincoln  ap 
proached  the  theme  from  the  direction  of  the  grace  of  Christ, 
but  of  the  irresistibility  of  a  divine  decree.  He  profoundly 
believed  himself  an  instrument  of  the  divine  will,  believing  that 
will  to  be  right,  and  creation's  final  law. 

If  it  were  asked,  where  in  such  a  system  as  his  he  found  a 
place  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  answer  would  be  first 
that  he  had  no  system,  and  secondly  that  he  found  no  place 
for  the  doctrine ;  but  it  would  then  be  necessary  to  add  that  he 
found  the  doctrine,  nevertheless.  He  had  no  system.  He 
thought  without  logical  method.  But  his  thinking  was  in  right 
lines.  He  followed  simple  paths,  "  blazed  "  through  techni 
calities  and  in  quite  thorough  disregard  of  them.  As  his  office 
desk  was  in  confusion,  and  he  kept  a  package  marked,  "  When 
you  don't  find  it  anywhere  else,  look  here,"  so  he  had  in  his 
thinking  a  parcel  of  unassorted  first  principles  to  which  he 
recurred  when  he  needed  them.  Forgiveness  and  law  were  to 
him  two  unreconciled  postulates;  but  law  he  had  to  assume, 
even  though  he  denied  forgiveness.  But  if  he  did  not  admit 
belief  in  forgiveness,  he  did  believe  in  mercy,  for  he  himself 
was  merciful,  and  he  believed  that  he  would  be  merciful  to 
God  if  he  were  God  and  God  were  man.  Stanton  could  argue 
him  down  as  to  the  necessity  for  shooting  a  soldier  who  slept  on 
duty,  but  Lincoln  injected  an  intuitive,  and  from  Stanton's 
point  of  view,  an  unreasonable  and  a  certainly  unarticulated, 
element  of  mercy  that  forbade  the  killing  of  this  particular 
boy. 

His  theory  of  governmental  forgiveness  was  as  irreconcil 
able  with  his  theory  of  military  discipline  as  his  theory  of 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     273 

divine  mercy  was  with  his  system  of  inexorable  law.  He  did 
not  harmonize  the  contradictions :  he  was  merciful,  and  let  his 
system  take  the  consequences,  and  he  believed  in  a  divine 
mercy  while  holding  a  theory  with  which  the  exercise  of 
mercy  was  irreconcilable. 

To  such  a  mind  as  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  it  was  not 
necessary  to  prove  the  fact  of  immortality.  If  God  possessed 
immortality  and  intended  it  for  man,  then  God  would  make 
His  decree  effective  in  man.  Adam's  fall  could  not  hopelessly 
lose  to  man  what  God  designed;  and,  whether  he  accepted  for 
himself  or  not  the  theory  of  the  fall  and  of  redemption,  he 
accepted  both  in  meeting  an  argument  which  by  reason  of  the 
fall  could  have  deprived  man  of  his  birthright  of  immortality. 
He  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

Did  he  harmonize  that  doctrine  with  the  rest  of  his  creed  ? 
Probably  not.  He  was  no  theologian,  in  the  strict  and  formal 
sense,  no  logician.  He  reasoned  on  the  basis  of  very  simple 
and  elementary  principles,  whose  lines  of  direction  were  deter 
mined  by  the  early  Calvinistic  preaching  to  which  he  listened, 
the  rationalistic  method  which  he  learned  from  Paine,  and  his 
simple  sense  of  justice  and  right. 

His  was  not  wholly  an  optimistic  faith.  He  knew  that  man 
was  sinful  and  sad  and  that  "  the  spirit  of  mortal "  had  little 
occasion  for  pride;  but  he  believed  in  an  eternal  justice  and 
an  unconquerable  goodness,  regnant  above  the  perplexities  and 
contradictions  of  this  life,  and  triumphant  in  the  life  ever 
lasting. 

Abraham  Lincoln  believed  in  God.  Save  in  his  moments 
of  deepest  gloom  when  everything  turned  black,  he  appears 
never  seriously  to  have  questioned  this  fundamental  article 
of  belief.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  he  could  have  done  so. 
His  idea  of  causation  forbade  it,  and,  what  was  more,  his 
profound  supernaturalism  affirmed  it  as  incontrovertible.  This 
element  of  supernaturalism  went  the  full  length  of  orthodox 
preaching,  as  Lincoln  heard  it  and  accepted  it.  It  was  in  ac 
cord  with  the  teachings  both  of  the  Baptists,  whom  he  heard 
in  Indiana  and  rural  Illinois,  and  the  Presbyterians,  to  whom 
he  listened  in  Springfield  and  in  Washington.  In  a  great  God, 


274     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

a  mighty  Creator,  a  Sovereign  Ruler,  he  was  taught  to  believe 
by  all  the  forms  of  Calvinism  to  which  throughout  his  life  he 
listened,  and  it  was  in  full  essential  accord  with  his  own  native 
tendency.  His  supernaturalism  was  not  only  ultra-orthodox; 
it  went  the  full  length  of  current  superstition.  The  frontiers 
man  of  that  day  had  superstition  wrought  into  him  by  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  wilderness,  the  solemnity  of  the  immeasurable 
forest  and  plain,  and  the  insignificance  of  man;  the  haunting 
tales  of  savagery  and  witchcraft;  the  presence  in  every  frontier 
community  of  some  person  supposed  to  be  possessed  of  second 
sight  or  other  supernatural  qualities.  The  rationalism  of  his 
mature  years  modified  but  did  not  in  any  degree  eradicate  his 
supernaturalism. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Paine  and  Volney,  whose 
works  he  read,  were  far  from  being  atheists.  Thomas  Paine, 
whatever  he  denied,  believed  as  strongly  as  Peter  Cartwright 
or  James  Smith  in  a  personal  God.  So  far  as  we  know, 
Lincoln  was  never  under  any  strong  influence  that  might  have 
made  him  an  atheist,  his  doubts  and  questionings  were  all 
within  the  sphere  of  an  expressed  or  implicit  theism. 

The  names  by  which  Lincoln  referred  to  God  are  many  and 
suggestive.  The  following  is  a  partial  list :  8 

Almighty,  Almighty  Architect,  Almighty  Arm,  Almighty 
Father,  Almighty  God,  Almighty  Hand,  Almighty  Power, 
Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  Creator,  Disposer,  Divine  Author, 
Divine  Being,  Divine  Majesty,  Divine  Providence,  Divine 
Will,  Eternal  God,  Father,  Father  in  Heaven,  Father  of 
Mercies,  God,  God  Almighty,  God  of  Battles,  God  of  Hosts, 
God  of  Nations,  Governor,  Heavenly  Father,  Higher  Being, 
Higher  Power,  Holy  Spirit,  Judge,  Lord,  Maker,  Maker  of 
the  Universe,  Master,  Most  High,  Most  High  God,  Omniscient 
Mind,  Power,  Providence,  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  Supreme 
Being. 

Lincoln  believed  in  the  Bible.  I  am  not  sure  that  he 
accepted  the  whole  content  of  the  positive  arguments  set  forth 
so  cogently  by  his  pastor,  Dr.  Smith.  When  he  called  this 

8  The  foregoing  list,  together  with  a  number  which  seem  to  me  less 
reliably  attested,  I  have  taken  from  Johnson,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
Christian,  pp.  215-17. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     275 

argument  "  unanswerable/'  it  need  not  imply  that  his  every 
doubt  was  satisfied,  his  every  misgiving  reassured.  It  is  en 
tirely  possible  that  there  lingered  in  his  mind  some  vestiges  of 
what  he  had  read  in  writers  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  the  in 
spiration  of  the  Scriptures  as  it  was  then  taught;  indeed,  that 
doctrine  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  currently  stated  was  not 
one  by  which  a  modern  man's  orthodoxy  ought  to  be  tested. 
But  he  read  the  Bible,  honored  it,  quoted  it  freely,  and  it  be 
came  so  much  a  part  of  him  as  visibly  and  permanently  to  give 
shape  to  his  literary  style  and  to  his  habits  of  thought.  When 
Mrs.  Speed  presented  him  an  Oxford  Bible  in  1841,  he  declared 
his  intention  to  read  it  regularly,  believing  it  to  be  "  the  best 
cure  for  the  blues  " ;  and  he  kept  and  loved  and  constantly  used 
his  mother's  Bible.  How  he  would  have  defined  his  theory  of 
its  transmission  and  of  the  relation  of  its  divine  and  human  ele 
ments  we  do  not  know,  and  we  need  not  be  too  curious  to 
inquire.  It  is  more  than  possible  that  Mr.  Lincoln  never  made 
this  definition  in  his  own  mind.  His  attitude  toward  the  Bible 
was  a  thoroughly  practical  one.  We  do  not  know  that  he  ever 
heard  Coleridge's  pragmatic  affirmation,  but  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  he  would  have  accepted  it,  namely,  that 
he  valued  the  Bible  because  "  it  finds  me  as  no  other  book." 
Concerning  his  opinion  of  Jesus  Christ  our  material  for 
constructive  hypothesis  is  exceedingly  scanty.9  Herndon  says 
he  does  not  believe  the  name  of  Jesus  can  be  found  in  any  of 
Lincoln's  authentic  writings.  I  have  found  it  in  his  writings 
but  I  must  confess  that  I  have  not  found  it  frequently  in  any 
which  I  count  to  be  certainly  genuine. 10  There  are,  however, 
a  number  of  references  to  Jesus  Christ  in  his  writings  and  pub 
lished  addresses,  and  they  are  both  positive  and  reverent. 

9  Dr.  Chapman,  who'  is  not  content  with  anything  less  than  a  complete 
orthodox  system  of  theology  for  Lincoln,  says: 

"  In  the  forefront  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  thinking  was  his  belief 
in  the  Saviour's  Deity."  His  first,  and  in  fact  his  only  proof,  is,  of  course, 
the  Bateman  interview.  Beyond  this  he  falls  into  such  generalities  as 
his  oft  repeated  mention  of  Him  as  "Our  Lord,"  and  declares  that 
"  again  and  again  does  Mr.  Lincoln  thus  speak  of  the  Saviour  "  (Latest 
Light  on  Lincoln,  p.  319).  If  so,  I  have  not  found  these  repeated  refer 
ences  in  his  authentic  speeches  and  papers. 

10  A   reference  to   Christ  dying  on  the  cross   is   in  his  lecture  on 
Niagara  Falls;  and  there  are  a  few  other  references. 


276     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

On  July  4,  1864,  tne  colored  people  of  Baltimore  pre 
sented  him  a  beautiful  copy  of  the  Bible  of  the  usual  pulpit 
size,  bound  in  violet-colored  velvet.  The  corners  were  bands 
of  solid  gold  and  there  was  a  thick  plate  of  gold  upon  the 
cover,  bearing  this  inscription : 

"To  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
the  friend  of  universal  freedom.  From  the  loyal  colored 
people  of  Baltimore,  as  a  token  of  respect  and  gratitude. 
Baltimore,  July  4,  1864." 

In  accepting  this  gift,  which  was  presented  in  person  by  a 
committee  of  five,  the  President  said: 

"  In  regard  to  this  great  book,  I  have  only  to  say  it  is  the 
best  gift  which  God  has  ever  given  man.  All  the  good  from 
the  Saviour  of  the  world  is  communicated  to  us  through  this 
book." — CARPENTER  :  Six  Months  in  the  White  House,  p.  199; 
also  NICOLAY  and  HAY:  Works  of  Lincoln,  twelve  volume 
edition,  X,  217-18. 

Such  references  as  this  show  to  us  the  instinctive  place 
which  he  accorded  Jesus  Christ  in  his  own  unpremeditated 
thinking.  This  was  the  best  thing  he  had  to  say  about  the 
Bible,  that  through  it  alone  we  have  knowledge  of  the  Saviour 
of  the  world. 

Herndon  tells  us  that  Lincoln  ridiculed  the  doctrine  of  the 
virgin  birth  of  Jesus.  If  this  is  true,  I  am  very  sorry.  But 
Abraham  Lincoln's  faith  in  Christ  did  not  depend  wholly  or 
even  primarily  upon  his  interpretation  of  the  mystery  of  our 
Lord's  birth.  I  approach  a  discussion  of  this  question  with 
some  hesitation,  for  it  is  one  which,  as  related  to  Lincoln  we 
do  not  know  very  much  about,  but  it  is  a  subject  which  we  are 
not  free  to  pass  over  in  silence. 

It  is  a  sad  fact  that  the  argument  for  the  divinity  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  should  ever  have  been  based  on  the  mystery 
of  his  birth.  Not  thus  does  the  New  Testament  establish  the 
doctrine  of  his  divinity.  The  wonderful  story  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus  is  told  in  two  places  only, — in  the  introduction  to  the  two 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT    277 

Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke,  and  these  are  the  very  two  that 
contain  genealogies  tracing  his  descent  through  Joseph.  The 
theory  that  one  of  these  gives  the  family  tree  of  Mary  is  un 
supported  by  any  evidence.  So  far  as  we  know,  Jesus  never 
referred  to  the  mystery  of  his  birth,  or  attached  any  importance 
to  it.  His  two  brothers,  James  and  Jude,  each  wrote  a  book 
which  we  have  in  the  New  Testament,  and  there  is  no  refer 
ence  in  either  of  them  to  this  doctrine.  Peter  preached  his 
mighty  sermons  at  Pentecost  and  afterwards,  proclaiming  the 
faith  on  which  the  Church  was  established,  and  he  grounded 
his  argument  for  the  divinity  of  Jesus  not  upon  his  birth,  but 
upon  his  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Paul  preached  the  gospel 
of  Christ  throughout  the  Roman  world,  and  neither  in  any 
recorded  sermon  nor  in  any  letter  did  he  make  any  reference 
to  that  dogma.  Mark,  earliest  of  the  gospels,  and  for  we  know 
not  how  long  a  period  the  only  one,  is  silent  as  to  the  birth  of 
Jesus;  and  John,  the  most  definitely  spiritual  of  them  all, 
begins  and  concludes  his  profound  philosophy  of  the  person 
of  Christ  without  a  word  concerning  the  manner  of  his  birth. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  wholly  unwarranted  dogmatism  which 
grounds  the  divinity  of  Jesus  in  a  question  of  the  domestic 
relations  of  Joseph  and  Mary.  Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  accepted 
for  what  He  was  and  is,  not  for  some  opinion  as  to  how  He 
became  what  He  was. 

We  do  not  know  whether  Abraham  Lincoln  ever  considered 
the  question  of  the  birth  of  Christ  in  any  personal  thought  he 
may  have  had  concerning  his  own  birth.  We  may  not  forget, 
however,  that  if  Herndon  is  right,  Lincoln  lived  and  died  with 
out  knowing  all  the  facts  about  his  own  mother  which  later 
research  has  made  certain.  The  marriage  certificate  of  his 
parents  was  recorded  in  another  county  than  that  in  which  he 
supposed  it  would  have  been  recorded,  and  he  appears  never 
to  have  been  certain  that  he  himself  was  begotten  in  lawful 
wedlock.  We  know  that  Nancy  Hanks  and  Thomas  Lincoln 
were  married  a  year  before  the  birth  of  their  eldest  daughter, 
who  was  older  than  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  he  is  believed  not 
to  have  known  that. 

What  then?    Should  a  man  in  1860  or  1864  refuse  to  vote 


278    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

for  Abraham  Lincoln  because  he  did  not  feel  certain  when  or 
whether  his  parents  were  married  ? 

The  man  who  said,  "  I  believe  in  Abraham  Lincoln,"  did 
not  commonly  have  in  mind  any  question  of  his  parentage,  but 
believed  in  his  integrity,  his  patriotism,  his  moral  leadership. 
Even  so  the  man  who  believes  in  Jesus  Christ  may  believe  in 
Him  without  ever  asking,  much  less  ever  answering,  any 
dubitable  question  in  metaphysics. 

Scant  as  are  the  references  to  Jesus  in  the  authentic  utter 
ances  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  they  do  not  seem  to  me  unim 
portant.  They  testify  to  a  faith  that  was  valid  as  far  as  it 
went.  They  manifest  a  spirit  which  is  fundamentally 
Christian. 

Unable  to  define  his  own  views  in  terms  that  would  have 
been  acceptable  to  those  who  believed  themselves  the  rightful 
guardians  of  orthodoxy  in  his  day,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Lincoln  was  guarded  in  his  references  to  a  dogma  which  might 
have  involved  him  in  greater  difficulties  than  he  was  prepared 
to  meet.  It  was  true  in  that  day  unhappily  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Paul,  "  Some  indeed  preach  Christ  even  of  envy  and 
strife;  and  some  also  of  good-will."  It  is  occasion  for  pro 
found  sorrow  that  Christ  has  been  so  preached  as  that  men 
have  sometimes  found  it  difficult  to  confess  their  faith  in  Him 
without  provoking  strife  and  envy. 

That  Lincoln  was  unwilling  to  make  his  doubt  the  occasion 
of  dogmatic  negation  is  evident  from  one  or  more  of  the 
acquaintances  of  Lincoln,  whom  Herndon  interviewed  in  an 
effort  to  adduce  testimony  against  his  faith,  and  whom  Lamon 
quoted  in  that  part  of  his  book  in  which  he  made  his  attack 
upon  the  religion  of  Lincoln.  The  following  from  I.  W.  Keys, 
the  man  who  loaned  to  him  Vestiges  of  Creation,  is  interesting 
in  itself  and  especially  interesting  in  its  relation  to  the  group 
of  testimonies  which  these  two  men  assembled : 

"  In  my  intercourse  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  learned  that  he 
believed  in  a  Creator  of  all  things,  who  had  neither  beginning 
nor  end,  and,  possessing  all  power  and  wisdom,  established  a 
principle,  in  obedience  to  which  worlds  move,  and  are  upheld, 
and  animal  and  vegetable  life  come  into  existence.  A  reason 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     279 

he  gave  for  his  belief  was  that,  in  view  of  the  order  and  har 
mony  of  all  nature  which  we  behold,  it  would  have  been 
created  and  arranged  by  some  great  thinking  power.  As  to 
the  Christian  theory,  that  Christ  is  God,  or  equal  to  the 
Creator,  he  said  that  it  had  better  be  taken  for  granted;  for, 
by  the  test  of  reason,  we  might  become  infidels  on  that  subject, 
for  evidence  of  Christ's  divinity  came  to  us  in  a  somewhat 
doubtful  shape;  but  that  the  system  of  Christianity  was  an 
ingenious  one  at  least,  and  perhaps  was  calculated  to  do  good." 
— LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  490. 

Emphatic  proof  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  is  to  be  found  in 
the  positive  declaration  of  the  two  men  who  have  done  most 
to  destroy  the  world's  confidence  in  it,  Lamon  and  Herndon. 
In  Lamon's  later  book  of  Reminiscences,  he  did  much  to  coun 
teract  the  harsh  and  to  my  mind  incorrect  impression  given  in 
his  earlier  book.  But  even  in  that  book  he  affirmed  that  while 
Lincoln  rejected  the  New  Testament  as  a  book  of  divine 
authority,  he  accepted  its  precepts  as  binding  upon  him  and 
was  a  believer  in  the  supernatural  even  to  credulity  (p.  503, 

504). 

In  that  same  work  Herndon  set  forth  that  Lincoln  was  a 
firm  believer  in  God  and  attempted,  as  he  said,  "  to  put  at  rest 
forever  the  charge  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  atheist."  He  de 
clared,  however,  that  Lincoln  did  not  believe  in  a  special  crea 
tion,  but  in  an  "  evolution  under  law  " ;  not  in  special  revela 
tion,  "  but  in  miracles  under  law  " ;  and  that  "  all  things  both 
matter  and  mind  were  governed  by  laws  universal,  absolute, 
and  eternal  "  (p.  494). 

To  this  Herndon  gives  even  more  emphatic  testimony  in 
his  own  book.  It  must  then  be  remembered  that  while  in  the 
loose  nomenclature  of  these  authors  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  "  in 
fidel  "  it  is  these  same  authors  that  assure  us,  as  Lamon  does, 
that  "  his  theological  opinions  were  substantially  those  ex 
pounded  by  Theodore  Parker." — LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln, 
p.  486. 

The  question  whether  Lincoln's  views  underwent  any  sub 
stantial  change  after  leaving  Springfield,  has  been  answered 
in  the  negative  by  John  G.  Nicolay,  his  private  secretary  at 


280     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  White  House ;  who  affirmed  that  "  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not, 
to  my  knowledge,  in  any  way  change  his  religious  views, 
opinions,  or  beliefs,  from  the  time  he  left  Springfield  to  the 
day  of  his  death." 

This  probably  is  correct.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  conscious  of 
any  radical  change ;  but  Mrs.  Lincoln  noticed  a  change  in  him 
after  Willie's  death,  which  grew  more  pronounced  after  his 
visit  to  Gettysburg,  and  his  own  faith,  while  undergoing  no 
sudden  and  radical  transformation,  manifests  a  consistent 
evolution. 

But  we  are  not  sure  how  much  Mr.  Nicolay  believed  Lin 
coln's  views  to  have  been  in  need  of  change.  He  said  in 
another  place : 

"  Benevolence  and  forgiveness  were  the  very  basis  of  his 
character.  His  nature  was  deeply  religious,  but  he  belonged  to 
no  denomination;  he  had  faith  in  the  eternal  justice  and 
boundless  mercy  of  Providence,  and  made  the  Golden  Rule  of 
Christ  his  practical  creed." — JOHN  G.  NICOLAY,  in  article 
"  Abraham  Lincoln  "  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  ninth  edi 
tion,  XIV,  662. 

Lincoln  believed  in  divine  destiny.  He  could  hardly  have 
believed  otherwise.  The  preaching  to  which  he  listened  was 
such  as  to  make  it  all  but  impossible  for  him  to  hold  any  other 
views.  He  believed  so  strongly  that  his  own  life  was  under 
divine  guidance  that  Lamon  and  Herndon  speak  of  it  in  a 
thinly  veiled  scorn  as  though  it  were  in  Lincoln's  mind  a  mark 
of  conscious  superiority.  Whether  it  was  such  a  mark  or  not 
does  not  now  concern  us.  Lincoln  believed  in  divine  guidance. 
He  had  faith  in  prayer  and  his  practice  of  prayer  is  attested  by 
many  and  credible  witnesses.  A  man  of  his  temperament  and 
training  and  sense  of  responsibility  could  not  well  have  been 
kept  from  praying.  Prayer  was  a  necessary  part  of  his  life. 
I  Lincoln  not  only  had  faith  in  prayer  considered  as  a  means 
of  obtaining  results  from  God ;  he  believed  in  it  as  establishing 
a  relation  with  God,  a  covenant  relation,  such  as  Abraham  of 
old  established.  If  such  a  faith  seems  inconsistent  with  any 
other  elements  in  the  faith  or  doubt  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  then 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     281 

the  inconsistency  must  stand,  for  he  did  not  hold  his  views 
in  entire  consistency.  In  no  respect  does  this  faith  in  the 
covenant  relation  emerge  more  strongly  than  in  connection 
with  the  issue  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Fortu 
nately,  the  evidence  here  is  incontestable.  The  Proclamation 
immediately  became  historic.  Lincoln  had  to  autograph  many 
copies  to  be  sold  at  sanitary  fairs — copies  which  now  sell  at 
one  thousand  dollars  each.  Every  incident  relating  to  the 
event  became  of  immediate  interest;  and  members  of  the  Cabi 
net  had  to  group  themselves  for  Carpenter's  historic  painting, 
of  which  he  has  left  so  valuable  a  literary  monument  in  his 
Six  Months  in  the  White  House.  The  members  of  the  Cabinet 
had  no  time  to  invent  or  imagine  a  set  of  incidents  mythical  in 
character,  for  each  of  them  had  to  describe  many  times,  and 
immediately,  the  circumstances  which  attended  the  reading  of 
the  Proclamation  to  the  Cabinet  on  Monday,  September  22, 
1862. 

This  is  the  important  and  incontestable  fact,  that  Lincoln 
did  not  bring  the  Proclamation  to  the  Cabinet  for  discussion, 
except  as  to  minor  details.  He  had  already  determined  to 
issue  it.  He  had  promised  God  that  he  would  do  so. 

This  was  the  statement  which  profoundly  impressed  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet, — the  President  told  them  that  he  had 
already  promised  God  that  he  would  free  the  slaves. 

The  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles  was  first  published  in  full  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  in  1909,  portions  of  it  having  earlier  ap 
peared  in  the  Century;  but  it  was  written  day  by  day  as  the 
events  occurred.  His  record  for  Monday,  September  22,  1862, 
begins  thus: 

"  We  have  a  special  Cabinet  meeting.  The  subject  was  the 
Proclamation  concerning  emancipating  slaves  after  a  certain 
date  in  States  that  should  then  be  in  rebellion.  For  several 
weeks  the  subject  has  been  suspended,  but,  the  President  says, 
never  lost  sight  of.  When  the  subject  was  submitted  in 
August,  and  indeed  in  taking  it  up,  the  President  stated  that 
the  matter  was  finally  decided,  but  that  he  felt  it  to  be  due  to 
us  to  make  us  acquainted  with  the  fact  and  invite  criticism  of 
the  Proclamation.  There  were  some  differences  in  the  Cabi- 


282     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

net,  but  he  had  formed  his  own  conclusions,  and  made  his  own 
decisions.  He  had,  he  said,  made  a  vow,  a  covenant,  that  if 
God  gave  us  the  victory  in  the  approaching  battle  (which  had 
just  been  fought)  he  would  consider  it  his  duty  to  move  for 
ward  in  the  cause  of  emancipation.  We  might  think  it  strange, 
he  said,  but  there  were  times  when  he  felt  uncertain  how  to 
act;  that  he  had  in  this  way  submitted  the  disposal  of  matters 
when  the  way  was  not  clear  to  his  mind  what  he  should  do. 
God  had  decided  this  question  in  favor  of  the  slave.  He  was 
satisfied  it  was  right — was  confirmed  and  strengthened  in  his 
action  by  the  vow  and  its  results ;  his  mind  was  fixed,  his  de 
cision  made;  but  he  wished  his  paper  announcing  his  course 
to  be  as  correct  in  terms  as  it  could  be  made  without  any  at 
tempt  to  change  his  determination.  For  that  was  fixed." — 
"The  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  1909, 
P.  369- 

We  have  no  present  concern  with  the  question  whether 
Lincoln's  method  of  determining  the  divine  will  was  a  reason 
able  method,  or  wholly  consistent  with  some  of  his  own  ques 
tions  and  doubts ;  what  concerns  us  is  that  the  President  invited 
no  discussion  of  the  Proclamation  in  its  essential  elements ;  any 
disposition  which  any  of  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  might 
have  felt  to  discuss  the  instrument  itself  or  seek  to  dissuade 
the  President  from  issuing  it  was  stopped  by  his  quiet  and 
emphatic  declaration  that  he  had  made  a  covenant  with  God, 
and  must  keep  his  vow;  and  that  he  was  strengthened  in  his 
own  conviction  that  the  Proclamation  was  in  accord  with  the 
will  of  God. 

We  must  not  pass  lightly  over  the  religious  aspects  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  Lincoln  had  submitted  his  first 
draft  of  the  Proclamation  to  the  Cabinet  on  Tuesday,  July 
22,  1862,  and  it  met  with  strong  opposition.  Only  two  mem 
bers  of  the  Cabinet  favored  it;  Seward  and  Chase  were 
strongly  against  it  and  the  others  thought  it  inopportune. 
With  the  memory  of  this  opposition,  which  in  July  had  prac 
tically  voted  the  President  down,  Mr.  Lincoln  brought  the 
matter  again  on  September  22,  not  for  discussion,  for  as  he 
said  he  knew  the  view  already  of  every  member  of  the  Cabinet, 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     283 

but  he  had  promised  God  that  he  would  do  this  thing.  That 
very  night  Secretary  Chase  wrote  in  his  diary  an  account  of 
the  meeting,  which  is  condensed  as  follows : 

"  Monday,  September  22,  1862. 

"  To  Department  about  nine.  State  Department  mes 
senger  came  with  notice  to  heads  of  Departments  to  meet  at 
twelve.  Received  sundry  callers.  Went  to  White  House.  All 
the  members  of  the  Cabinet  were  in  attendance.  There  was 
some  general  talk,  and  the  President  mentioned  that  Artemus 
Ward  had  sent  him  his  book.  Proposed  to  read  a  chapter 
which  he  thought  very  funny.  Read  it,  and  seemed  to  enjoy 
it  very  much. 

"The  President  then  took  a  graver  tone,  and  said, 
'  Gentlemen :  I  have,  as  you  are  aware,  thought  a  great  deal 
about  the  relation  of  this  war  to  slavery;  and  you  all  remember 
that,  several  weeks  ago,  I  read  to  you  an  order  I  had  prepared 
on  this  subject,  which,  on  account  of  objections  made  by  some 
of  you,  was  not  issued.  Ever  since  then  my  mind  has  been 
much  occupied  with  this  subject,  and  I  have  thought,  all  along, 
that  the  time  for  acting  on  it  might  probably  come.  I  think 
the  time  has  come  now.  I  wish  it  was  a  better  time.  I  wish 
that  we  were  in  a  better  condition.  The  action  of  the  army 
against  the  Rebels  has  not  been  quite  what  I  should  best  like. 
But  they  have  been  driven  out  of  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania 
is  no  longer  in  danger  of  invasion.  When  the  Rebel  Army 
was  at  Frederick,  I  determined,  as  soon  as  it  should  be  driven 
out  of  Maryland,  to  issue  a  Proclamation  of  Emancipation, 
such  as  I  thought  most  likely  to  be  useful.  I  said  nothing  to 
anyone,  but  I  made  the  promise  to  myself,  and  [hesitating  a 
little]  to  my  Maker.  The  Rebel  Army  is  now  driven  out,  and 
I  am  going  to  fulfill  that  promise.  I  have  got  you  together 
to  hear  what  I  have  written  down.  I  do  not  wish  your  advice 
about  the  main  matter,  for  that  I  have  determined  for  myself. 
This,  I  say,  without  intending  anything  but  respect  for  any 
one  of  you.  But  I  already  know  the  views  of  each  on  this 
question.  They  have  been  heretofore  expressed,  and  I  have 
considered  them  as  thoroughly  and  carefully  as  I  can.  What 
I  have  written  is  that  which  my  reflections  have  determined  me 
to  say.  If  there  is  anything  in  the  expressions  I  use,  or  in  any 
.minor  matter,  which  any  one  of  you  thinks  had  best  be 


284    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

changed  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  the  suggestions.  One  other 
observation  I  will  make.  I  know  very  well  that  many  others 
might,  in  this  matter  as  in  others,  do  better  than  I  can;  and 
if  I  was  satisfied  that  the  public  confidence  was  more  fully 
possessed  by  any  one  of  them  than  by  me,  and  knew  of  any 
constitutional  way  in  which  he  could  be  put  in  my  place,  he 
should  have  it.  I  would  gladly  yield  it  to  him.  But  though 
I  believe  that  I  have  not  so  much  of  the  confidence  of  the 
people  as  I  had  some  time  since,  I  do  not  know  that,  all  things 
considered,  any  other  person  has  more ;  and  however  this  may 
be,  there  is  no  way  in  which  I  can  have  any  other  man  put 
where  I  am.  I  am  here;  I  must  do  the  best  I  can,  and  bear 
the  responsibility  of  taking  the  course  which  I  feel  I  ought  to 
take/  " — WARDEN  :  Life  of  S.  P.  Chase,  pp.  481-82,  quoted  in 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  VI,  159-60. 

In  the  diaries  of  Secretaries  Welles  and  Chase  we  have 
incontrovertible  testimony.  The  two  records  were  made  inde 
pendently  and  on  that  very  night,  and  were  not  published  for 
years  afterward.  There  was  no  possible  collusion  or  reshaping 
of  the  testimony  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  no  time  for 
imagination  to  play  any  part  in  enlarging  upon  the  incident. 
The  President  recognized  that  the  time  was  not  wholly  pro 
pitious,  that  a  majority  of  the  Cabinet  probably  would  not  be 
disposed  to  adopt  his  Proclamation  if  put  to  vote,  that  the 
people's  support  of  the  administration  was  wavering  and  un- 
predicable  and  none  too  certain  to  approve  this  measure. 
Under  these  conditions  it  is  impossible  to  consider  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  solely  from  the  standpoint  either  of 
political  expediency  or  of  military  necessity.  The  fact  which 
silenced  all  opposition  in  the  Cabinet  was  the  President's 
solemn  statement  that  he  had  made  a  covenant  with  God,  and 
that  he  must  keep  it. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  solemnity  is  heightened  by 
the  grotesque  incident  of  the  chapter  from  Artemus  Ward 
read  at  the  beginning.  There  is  an  aspect  in  which  the  sublim 
ity  of  that  Cabinet  meeting's  ending  is  heightened  by  the  ridicu 
lousness  of  its  beginning.  In  any  event,  it  shows  that  the 
mind  of  Abraham  Lincoln  that  morning  was  in  what  for  him 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     285 

was  a  thoroughly  healthy  condition.  However  incongruous  it 
might  have  been  for  another  man  to  begin  so  solemn  a  meeting 
with  a  chapter  from  Artemus  Ward,  it  was  a  mark  of  sanity, 
of  thorough  normal  psychology,  when  done  by  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  It  showed  that  the  moral  overstrain  was  finding  its 
relief  from  excessive  tension  in  what  for  Lincoln  was  an  en 
tirely  normal  way. 

As  before  stated,  these  two  contemporary  accounts  by 
Welles  and  Chase,  though  made  at  the  time,  were  not  published 
until  years  afterward;  but  there  was  another  publication  that 
was  virtually  contemporary.  Frank  B.  Carpenter,  the  artist, 
began  almost  immediately  his  noted  painting  of  the  signing  of 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  in  the  course  of  his  six 
months  in  the  White  House  had  long  and  repeated  interviews 
with  all  members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  talked  with  them  about 
every  incident  connected  with  that  event.  He  published  his 
account  in  his  book  in  1866,  while  all  the  members  of  the  Cabi 
net  were  living,  and,  so  far  as  known,  was  never  objected  to  or 
proposed  to  be  modified  by  any  member  of  the  Cabinet.  Ac 
cording  to  his  statement,  Lincoln  told  the  Cabinet  that  he 
had  promised  God  that  he  would  do  this,  uttering  the  last 
part  of  this  sentence  in  a  low  voice.  Secretary  Chase,  who  was 
sitting  near  the  President,  asked  Mr.  Lincoln  if  he  had  cor 
rectly  understood  him,  and  the  President  repeated  what  he 
had  affirmed  before,  saying : 

"  I  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God,  that  if  General  Lee  was 
driven  back  from  Pennsylvania,  I  would  crown  the  result  by 
the  declaration  of  freedom  for  the  slaves." — Six  Months  in  the 
White  House,  pp.  89,  90. 

In  this  threefold  attestation  we  have  irrefutable  testimony 
that  the  determining  motive  of  President  Lincoln  in  his  issue 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  the  keeping  of  his 
solemn  covenant  with  God. 

It  is  all  but  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  significance  of  this 
incident.  The  essential  fact  is  as  fully  proved  as  human  testi 
mony  can  possibly  prove  a  fact.  When  we  remember  the  ex 
treme  reticence  of  Abraham  Lincoln  on  all  such  matters,  and 
the  fact  of  which  he  must  have  been  painfully  conscious  that 


286    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

his  Cabinet  was  not  very  favorably  disposed  toward  the  thing 
that  he  proposed  to  do,  his  quiet,  outspoken,  and  repeated  dec 
laration  that  he  had  promised  this  thing  to  God  is  sufficient  in 
itself  to  settle  forever  the  essentially  religious  character  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  If  we  had  no  other  word  from  his  lips 
touching  on  the  subject  of  religion  but  this  one,  we  should  be 
assured  of  his  unfaltering  belief  in  God,  in  a  profound  sense 
of  his  own  personal  responsibility  to  God,  in  prayer,  and  a 
personal  relation  with  God. 

This  was  no  platitude  uttered  to  meet  the  expectation  of 
the  religious  people  of  the  United  States;  it  was  no  evasive 
generality  intended  to  fit  whatever  religious  desire  might  lie  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  heard  him.  It  was  no  play  to  the 
gallery;  it  was  no  masquerade;  every  motive  of  pretense  or 
hypocrisy  or  duplicity  was  absent.  It  was  the  sincere  expres 
sion  of  the  abiding  faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  God,  and 
prayer,  and  duty. 

Lincoln  was  a  believer  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.10 
Herndon  affirms  this  and  declares  that  any  attempt  to  deny  it 
would  imply  that  Lincoln  was  a  dishonest  man.  He  believed 
in  the  preservation  of  identity  beyond  the  grave  so  that  we 
shall  be  conscious  of  our  own  identity  and  be  able  to  recognize 
our  loved  ones. 

10  Dr.  Chapman's  Latest  Light  on  Lincoln  has  a  few  hitherto  unprinted 
things,  one  of  them  being  some  notes  by  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  the  beginnings 
of  a  contemplated  book  or  pamphlet  which  he  did  not  complete.  The 
manuscript  as  produced  by  Dr.  Chapman  was  furnished  by  Dr.  Gurley's 
daughter,  Mrs.  Emma  K.  Adams,  of  Washington.  The  only  incident  of 
any  considerable  value  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  one  night  invited  Dr.  Gurley, 
who  like  himself  was  an  early  riser,  to  come  to  the  White  House  next 
morning  at  seven  o'clock  for  an  hour's  talk  before  breakfast.  They  had 
the  talk  and  the  breakfast.  As  Dr.  Gurley  walked  away,  he  was  asked 
whether  he  and  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  talking  about  the  war,  and  he 
replied,  "  Far  from  it.  We  have  been  talking  about  the  state  of  the 
soul  after  death.  That  is  a  subject  of  which  Mr.  Lincoln  never  tires. 
This  morning,  however,  I  was  a  listener,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  did  all  the 
talking"  (Latest  Light  on  Lincoln,  p.  500). 

There  can  be,  I  think,  no  serious  question  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  faith  in 
immortality.  It  was  much  more  easy  for  a  man  of  his  training  and 
temperament  to  hold  that  article  of  faith  than  some  others  which  might 
seem  to  some  other  men  more  easily  to  be  accepted. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT     287 

He  believed  in  future  punishment,  but  not  in  endless  pun 
ishment.  Punishment  seemed  to  him  so  inevitable  a  part  of 
an  inexorable  divine  law  that  he  sometimes  objected  to  the 
preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  as  being  subversive 
of  the  fact  of  law,  which  he  held  must  continue  its  sway  in 
this  world  and  in  every  world;  but  in  eternal  punishment  he 
did  not  believe.  His  old  neighbors  in  New  Salem,  his  friends 
in  Springfield,  and  those  who  knew  him  in  Washington  agree 
in  this.  We  have  already  quoted  from  the  letter  of  Isaac 
Cogdal  to  Mr.  B.  F.  Irwin,  April  10,  1874,  who  tells  of  a 
conversation  he  had  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  latter's  office  in 
Springfield  about  1859,  concerning  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
faith.  Mr.  Herndon  was  present.  He  says : 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  himself  in  about  these  words : 
He  did  not  nor  could  not  believe  in  the  endless  punishment  of 
anyone  of  the  human  race.  He  understood  punishment  for  sin 
to  be  a  Bible  doctrine;  that  the  punishment  was  parental 
in  its  object,  aim,  and  design,  and  intended  for  the  good  of 
the  offender;  hence  it  must  cease  when  justice  was  satisfied. 
He  added  that  all  that  was  lost  by  the  transgression  of  Adam 
was  made  good  by  the  atonement ;  all  that  was  lost  by  the  fall 
was  made  good  by  the  sacrifice.  And  he  added  this  remark, 
that  punishment  being  a  provision  of  the  gospel  system,  he  was 
not  sure  but  the  world  would  be  better  if  a  little  more  punish 
ment  was  preached  by  our  ministers,  and  not  so  much  pardon 
for  sin." 

William  H.  Hannah,  in  Lamon's  group  of  citations,  says : 

"  Since  1856  Mr,  Lincoln  told  me  that  he  was  a  kind  of 
immortalist ;  that  he  never  could  bring  himself  to  believe  in 
eternal  punishment;  that  man  lived  but  a  little  while  here; 
and  that,  if  eternal  punishment  were  man's  doom,  he  should 
spend  that  little  life  in  vigilant  and  ceaseless  preparation  by 
never-ending  prayer." — LAMON  :  Life  of  Lincoln,  p.  489. 

Some  who  have  known  of  Lincoln's  particular  utterances 
on  certain  of  these  points  have  been  misled,  as  it  appears  to 
me,  by  the  similarity  of  some  o£  these  points  to  doctrines  held 
by  particular  religious  sects  and  have  sought  to  identify  Lin- 


288    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

coin  more  or  less  with  those  denominations.  The  fact  that  he 
took  portions  of  his  positive  thinking  from  Theodore  Parker 
and  William  Ellery  Channing,  does  not  necessitate  that  he  was 
a  Unitarian ;  nor  does  the  fact  that  he  did  not  believe  in  eternal 
punishment  compel  his  classification  with  Universalists.  Theo 
dore  Parker  and  William  E.  Channing  chanced  to  be  the 
authors  whose  writings  came  into  his  possession  at  a  time 
when  they  served  to  define  particular  aspects  of  his  own  faith. 
Horace  Bushnell,  or  Henry  Ward  Beecher  might  have  served 
him  quite  as  well  and  possibly  in  some  respects  better.  For 
Lincoln's  Calvinism  was  too  deep-rooted  to  be  eradicated;  and 
a  positive  faith,  both  liberal  and  constructive,  that  could  have 
been  grafted  on  to  that  root  might  very  possibly  have  served 
him  better  than  anything  so  radical  as  in  its  nature  to  deny  any 
essential  part  of  what  he  felt  he  must  continue  to  believe. 
Parker  and  Channing  served  him  as  James  Smith's  Christian's 
Defence  and  Robert  Chambers'  Vestiges  of  Creation  served 
him  in  assuring  him  that  a  man  could  hold  the  views  he  held 
and  know  more  about  them  than  he  knew  and  still  be  a  reverent 
Christian.  Such  a  Christian  Abraham  Lincoln  appears  to  me 
to  have  been. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  claim  which  I  am  here  making 
for  the  faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln  can  be  denied  on  the  basis 
of  any  authentic  utterance  of  his.  If  at  any  point  he  is  known 
to  have  said  or  written  anything  which  is  apparently  incon 
sistent  with  these  affirmations,  that  utterance  I  think  will  be 
found  somewhere  in  this  volume  and  the  reader  will  have  no 
difficulty  in  finding  it  and  in  giving  it  its  proper  weight.  But 
I  do  not  think  the  general  position  which  this  chapter  sets 
forth  can  be  seriously  shaken.  In  the  sense  which  this  chapter 
has  endeavored  truthfully  to  set  forth,  Abraham  Lincoln  be 
lieved  in  God,  in  Christ,  in  the  Bible,  in  prayer,  in  duty,  and 
in  immortality. 

Religion  is  one  thing  and  theology  is  another.  A  love  of 
flowers  is  one  thing  and  a  knowledge  of  botany  is  another. 
A  man  may  love  a  flower  and  call  it  by  the  wrong  name,  or 
know  no  name  for  it.  A  man  may  have  the  religion  of  Christ, 
and  hold  very  wrong  opinions  or  conjectures  concerning 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  ARGUMENT    289 

Christ.  We  are  saved  by  faith,  not  by  conjecture.  No  man 
is  saved  or  lost  because  of  the  correctness  of  his  opinions. 
Correct  thinking  is  important ;  but  it  is  not  so  important  as  a 
right  attitude  toward  spiritual  realities  and  practical  duties. 
Faith  and  opinion  are  not  unrelated,  but  neither  are  they 
identical. 

Too  much  of  the  effort  to  prove  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  a  Christian  has  begun  and  ended  in  the  effort  to  show 
that  on  certain  theological  topics  he  cherished  correct  opinions. 
That  would  not  prove  him  to  be  a  Christian,  nor  would  the 
lack  of  these  certainly  prove  that  he  was  not  a  Christian. 
Religion  is  of  the  heart  and  life;  theology  is  of  the  brain  and 
mind.  Each  is  important,  but  theology  is  less  important  than 
religion. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  theologian,  and  several  of  his 
theological  opinions  may  have  been  incorrect ;  but  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  he  was  a  true  Christian.  The  world 
has  need  of  a  few  theologians,  and  of  a  great  many  Christians. 

It  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  custom  when  he  read  a  paragraph 
which  deeply  interested  him,  to  draw  a  pencil  line  around  it 
in  the  book;  and  if  it  was  something  which  he  wished  to 
commit  to  memory  and  meditate  upon,  he  often  copied  it  upon 
a  scrap  of  paper.  I  own  a  half  page  of  notepaper  containing 
in  Lincoln's  handwriting  and  with  his  signature,  a  paragraph 
from  Baxter's  "  Saint's  Rest."  The  manuscript  was  owned 
by  Hon.  Winfield  Smith,  Lincoln's  Attorney-General  in  1864, 
and  was  among  his  private  papers  when  he  died.  The  para 
graph  reads : 

"  It  is  more  pleasing  to  God  to  see  his  people  study  Him 
and  His  will  directly,  than  to  spend  the  first  and  chief  of 
their  effort  about  attaining  comfort  for  themselves.  We  have 
faith  given  us,  principally  that  we  might  believe  and  live  by 
it  in  daily  applications  of  Christ.  You  may  believe  immedi 
ately  (by  God's  help)  but  getting  assurance  of  it  may  be  the 
work  of  a  great  part  of  your  life." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  what  was  in  Lincoln's 
mind  when  he  read  this  paragraph,  and  sat  down  with  pen 


290    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

and  ink  to  copy  and  meditate  upon  it.  The  "  comfort  "  which 
Baxter  was  referring  to  in  this  passage  was  the  comfort  of 
assurance  of  salvation  in  Christ.  It  was  a  theme  on  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  heard  many  sermons,  first  and  last,  by  Predesti- 
narian  preachers,  both  Baptist  and  Presbyterian.  If  a  man 
was  among  the  elect,  how  could  he  be  sure  of  it,  and  what 
means  could  he  take  to  make  the  assurance  more  certain? 
Baxter's  answer  was  that  assurance  in  this  matter  is  less  im 
portant  than  to  study  and  obey  God's  will;  and  that  faith  is 
given  us  as  something  in  whose  exercise  we  may  live  daily 
without  greatly  troubling  ourselves  about  fathomless  mys 
teries.  It  was  good  doctrine  for  a  man  who  had  been  reared 
as  Lincoln  had  been  reared,  and  the  remainder  of  the  passage 
was  especially  in  line  with  his  needs.  He  could  believe  im 
mediately,  even  though  the  assurance  of  faith  was  long  de 
layed.  That  assurance  might  be  the  work  of  a  lifetime,  but 
faith  was  something  that  might  be  lived  upon  now.  The 
thought  is  akin  to  that  in  the  fine  lines  of  Lizzie  York  Case : 

(f  There  is  no  unbelief: 
For  thus  by  day  and  night  unconsciously 
The  heart  lives  by  the  faith  the  lips  deny, — 

God  knoweth  why" 

A  man  can  live  by  a  faith  of  which  he  has  not  full  assur 
ance — so  said  the  sensible  old  Puritan,  Richard  Baxter — he 
can  live  on  it  though  it  take  him  nearly  all  his  life  to  gain 
assurance ;  and  I  am  certain  he  would  have  added,  had  he  been 
asked,  that  if  assurance  never  came,  and  our  heart  condemn 
us,  "  God  is  greater  than  our  heart." 

The  carefully  written  paragraph  in  Lincoln's  hand  appears 
to  indicate  that  the  thought  was  one  which  deeply  impressed 
Lincoln.  Perhaps  he  felt  that  his  own  faith  was  of  that  sort, 
a  faith  on  which  a  man  could  live,  while  going  forward  in 
the  study  and  pursuit  of  the  will  of  God,  not  seeking  one's 
own  comfort  or  the  joy  of  complete  assurance,  but  finding  in 
the  daily  performance  of  duty  the  essential  quality  of  true 
faith. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  made  no  effort,  so  far  as  we  know,  to 
formulate  a  creed.  It  would  have  been  an  exceedingly  difficult 
thing  for  him  to  have  accomplished.  His  utterances  on  re 
ligious  subjects  were  not  made  as  dogmatic  affirmations.  He 
merely  uttered  as  occasion  seemed  to  him  to  demand  such  senti 
ments  and  principles  as  expressed  those  aspects  of  truth  which 
he  felt  and  believed  to  need  expression  at  those  particular 
times.  Nevertheless,  these  utterances  together  cover  a  some 
what  wide  range;  and  while  they  were  not  intended  to  epit 
omize  any  system  of  Christian  doctrine,  they  make  a  nearer 
approach  to  an  epitome  of  this  character  than  on  the  whole 
might  reasonably  have  been  expected. 

It  will  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  close  this  study  with 
a  series  of  short  quotations  from  documents,  letters,  and  ad 
dresses,  certified  as  authentic  and  touching  directly  upon  points 
of  Christian  doctrine.  In  most  instances  these  have  been 
quoted  already,  with  their  context,  but  they  are  here  brought 
together  in  briefer  form  in  order  to  facilitate  our  inquiry 
whether  they  afford  any  material  out  of  which  might  be  made 
some  approach  to  a  statement  of  Christian  faith. 

Materials  for  a  Lincoln  creed: 

I  sincerely  hope  father  may  recover  his  health,  but,  at  all 
events,  tell  him  to  remember  to  call  upon  and  confide  in 
our  great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker,  who  will  not  turn 
away  from  him  in  any  extremity.  He  notes  the  fall  of  a 
sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads,  and  He  will 
not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in  Him.  .  .  . 
If  it  be  his  lot  to  go  now  he  will  soon  have  a  joyous  meeting 
with  many  loved  ones  gone  before,  and  where  the  rest  of 

291 


292     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

us  with  the  help  of  God  hope  ere  long  to  join  them. — Letter 
to  his 'dying  father,  January  12,  1851.  Complete  Works, 
I,  165. 

Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who  ever  at 
tended  him  [Washington]  I  cannot  succeed.  With  that  as 
sistance,  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  His  care  who  can  go  with 
me,  and  remain  with  you,  and  be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us 
confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To  His  care  com 
mending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend  me, 
I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. — Farewell  Address,  Spring 
field,  February  n,  1861.  Complete  Works,  I,  672. 

If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  His  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  our  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours  of  the 
South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely  prevail  by  the 
judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the  American  people.  .  .  . 
Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on 
Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still 
competent  to  adjust  in  the  best  way  all  our  present  diffi 
culty.  .  .  .  My  dissatisfied  fellow  countrymen  .  .  .  you 
have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  government, 
while  I  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect,  and 
defend  it. — First  Inaugural,  March  4,  1861.  Complete  Works, 
11,7. 

May  God  give  you  that  consolation  which  is  beyond  all 
earthly  power. — Letter  to  parents  of  Colonel  Elmer  Ellsworth, 
May  25,  1861.  Complete  Works,  II,  52. 

And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without  guile  and  with 
pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God  and  go  forward 
without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts. — First  Message  to  Con 
gress,  July  4,  1 86 1.  Complete  Works,  II,  66. 

Whereas  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people,  at  all  times, 
to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  supreme  government  of  God; 
to  bow  in  humble  submission  to  His  chastisements ;  to  confess 


CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN     293 

and  deplore  their  sins  and  transgressions,  in  the  full  conviction 
that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom ;  and  to 
pray  with  all  fervency  and  contrition  for  the  pardon  of  their 
past  offenses,  and  for  a  blessing  upon  their  present  and  pros 
pective  action: 

And  whereas  when  our  own  beloved  country,  once,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  united,  prosperous,  and  happy,  is  now  af 
flicted  with  factions  and  civil  war,  it  is  particularly  fit  for  us 
to  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  this  terrible  visitation,  and 
in  sorrowful  remembrance  of  our  own  faults  and  crimes  as  a 
nation  and  as  individuals,  to  humble  ourselves  before  Him  and 
to  pray  for  His  mercy. — National  Fast  Day  Proclamation, 
August  12,  1 86 1.  Complete  Works,  II,  73. 


In  the  midst  of  unprecedented  political  troubles  we  have 
cause  of  great  gratitude  to  God  for  unusual  health  and  most 
abundant  harvest.  .  .  .  The  struggle  of  today  is  not  alto 
gether  for  today — it  is  for  a  vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance 
on  Providence  all  the  more  firm  and  earnest,  let  us  proceed 
to  the  great  task  which  events  have  devolved  upon  us. — Annual 
Message  to  Congress,  December  3,  1861.  Complete  Works, 
II,  93  and  106. 

Whereas  it  has  seemed  to  me  probable  that  the  unsuccessful 
application  made  for  the  commutation  of  his  sentence  may 
have  prevented  the  said  Nathaniel  Gordon  from  making  the 
necessary  preparation  for  the  awful  change  which  awaits  him : 
Now  therefore  be  it  known  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  have  granted  and  do  hereby  grant  unto 
him,  the  said  Nathaniel  Gordon,  a  respite  of  the  above  recited 
sentence,  until  Friday,  the  2ist  of  February,  A.D.  1862.  .  .  . 
In  granting  this  respite  it  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  admonish 
the  prisoner  that,  relinquishing  all  expectation  of  pardon  by 
human  authority,  he  refer  himself  alone  to  the  mercy  of  the 
common  God  and  Father  of  all  men. — Proclamation  of  Respite 
for  a  Convicted  Slave  Trader,  February  4,  1862.  Complete 
Works,  II,  121-22. 


294     THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Being  a  humble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  our  Heavenly 
Father,  as  I  am,  and  as  we  all  are,  to  work  out  His  great  pur 
poses,  I  have  desired  that  all  my  works  and  acts  may  be  ac 
cording  to  His  will ;  and  that  it  might  be  so,  I  have  sought  His 
aid. — Reply  to  Mrs.  Gurney  and  Deputation  from  Society  of 
Friends,  September  [28?],  1862.  Complete  Works,  II,  243. 

In  full  view  of  my  great  responsibility  to  my  God  and  to 
my  country,  I  earnestly  beg  the  attention  of  Congress  and  the 
people  to  the  subject. — Message  to  Congress  recommending 
Emancipation  with  Compensation  to  Owners,  March  6,  1862. 
Complete  Works,  II,  130. 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  vouchsafe  signal  victories 
to  the  land  and  naval  forces.  .  .  .  It  is  therefore  recom 
mended  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  at  their  next 
weekly  assemblages  .  .  .  they  especially  acknowledge  and 
render  thanks  to  our  Heavenly  Father  for  these  inestimable 
blessings;  that  they  then  and  there  implore  spiritual  consola 
tion  in  behalf  of  all  who  have  been  brought  into  affliction  by 
the  casualties  and  calamities  of  sedition  and  civil  war;  and 
that  they  reverently  invoke  the  Divine  guidance  to  our  national 
counsels,  to  the  end  that  they  may  speedily  result  in  restora 
tion  of  peace,  harmony,  and  unity. — Special  Thanksgiving 
Proclamation,  April  10,  1862.  Complete  Works,  II,  143. 

The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests  each  party 
claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God.  Both  may 
be,  and  one  must  be,  wrong.  God  cannot  be  for  and  against 
the  same  thing  at  the  same  time.  In  the  present  civil  war  it  is 
quite  possible  that  God's  purpose  is  something  different  from 
the  purpose  of  either  party;  and  yet  the  human  instrumen 
talities,  working  just  as  they  do,  are  of  the  best  adaptation  to 
effect  His  purpose.  I  am  almost  ready  to  say  that  this  is 
probably  true;  that  God  wills  this  contest,  and  wills  that  it 
shall  not  end  yet.  By  His  mere  great  power  on  the  minds 
of  the  now  contestants,  He  could  have  either  saved  or  de 
stroyed  the  Union  without  a  human  contest.  Yet  the  contest 


CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN     295 

began.  And,  having  begun,  He  could  give  the  final  victory 
to  either  side  any  day.  Yet  the  contest  proceeds. — A  Medi 
tation  on  the  Divine  Will  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
formulated  about  September  30,  1862,  and  not  written  for  the 
eye  of  men  but  apparently  in  the  effort  to  define  the  moral 
aspects  of  the  subject  and  to  clarify  his  own  spiritual  outlook. 
— Complete  Works,  II,  243-44. 

Whereas  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as  of  men  to  own 
their  dependence  upon  the  overruling  power  of  God;  to  con 
fess  their  sins  and  transgressions  in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with 
assured  hope  that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and 
pardon;  and  to  recognize  the  sublime  truth,  announced  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  proved  by  all  history,  that  those  nations 
only  are  blest  whose  God  is  the  Lord;  And  inasmuch  as  we 
know  that  by  His  Divine  law  nations,  like  individuals,  are  sub 
jected  to  punishments  and  chastisements  in  this  world,  may 
we  not  justly  fear  that  the  awful  calamity  of  civil  war  which 
now  desolates  the  land  may  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon 
us  for  our  presumptuous  sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our 
national  reformation  as  a  whole  people? — Fast  Day  Procla 
mation,  March  30,  1863.  Complete  Works,  II,  319. 

It  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and  confess  the  presence 
of  the  Almighty  Father  and  the  power  of  His  hand  equally  in 
these  triumphs  and  in  these  sorrows.  ...  I  invite  the  people 
of  the  United  States  ...  to  render  the  homage  due  to  the 
Divine  Majesty  for  the  wonderful  things  He  has  done  in  the 
nation's  behalf,  and  invoke  the  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
subdue  the  anger  which  has  produced  and  so  long  sustained 
a  needless  and  cruel  rebellion. — Thanksgiving  Proclamation, 
July  15,  1863.  Complete  Works,  II,  370. 

In  regard  to  the  Great  Book,  I  have  only  to  say,  it  is  the 
best  gift  which  God  has  ever  given  man.  All  the  good  from 
the  Saviour  of  the  world  is  communicated  to  us  through  this 
book. — Response  to  Presentation  of  Bible.  Complete  Works, 
Nicolay  and  Hay's  new  and  enlarged  edition,  twelve  volumes, 
N.  Y.,  1905,  X,  217-18. 


296    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Signal  successes  .  .  .  call  for  devout  acknowledgment  to 
the  Supreme  Being  in  whose  hand  are  the  destinies  of  nations. 
— Thanksgiving  Proclamation,  September  3,  1864.  Complete 
Works,  II,  571. 

God  knows  best  .  .  .  surely  He  intends  some  great  good 
to  follow  this  mighty  convulsion,  which  no  mortal  could  make 
and  no  mortal  can  stave.  .  .  .  That  you  believe  this  I  doubt 
not;  and  believing  it,  I  shall  still  receive  for  our  country  and 
myself  your  earnest  prayers  to  our  Father  in  Heaven. — Letter 
to  Mrs.  Gurney,  September  4,  1864.  Complete  Works,  II, 
573-74- 

I  do  further  recommend  to  my  fellow  citizens  aforesaid, 
that  they  do  reverently  humble  themselves  in  the  dust,  and 
from  thence  offer  up  penitent  and  fervent  prayers  and  sup 
plications  to  the  Great  Disposer  of  events  for  a  return  of  the 
inestimable  blessings  of  peace,  union,  and  harmony. — Thanks 
giving  Proclamation,  October  20,  1864.  Complete  Works, 

ii,  587- 

I  am  thankful  to  God  for  this  approval  of  the  people;  .  .  . 
I  give  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  this  evidence  of  the  people's 
resolution  to  stand  by  free  government  and  the  rights  of 
humanity. — Response  to  Serenade  following  Re-election,  No 
vember  9,  1864.  Complete  Works,  II,  595. 

I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not  wrong, 
nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when  I  did  not  so  think 
and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never  understood  that  the  Presi 
dency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  right  to  act  officially 
upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.  ...  I  claim  not  to  have 
controlled  events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  con 
trolled  me.  Now  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the 
nation's  condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any  man,  de 
vised  or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it.  Whither  it  is 
tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills  the  removal  of  a  great 
wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we  of  the  North  as  well  as  you  of 


CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN     297 

the  South,  shall  pay  fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong, 
impartial  history  will  find  therein  new  cause  to  attest  and 
revere  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God. — Letter  to  A.  G. 
Hodges,  April  4,  1864.  Complete  Works,  II,  508-09. 

Enough  is  known  of  army  operations  within  the  last  five 
days  to  claim  an  especial  gratitude  to  God,  while  what  remains 
undone  demands  our  most  sincere  prayers  to,  and  reliance 
upon,  Him  without  whom  all  human  effort  is  vain. — Recom 
mendation  of  Thanksgiving,  May  9,  1864.  Complete  Works, 

ii,  519. 

I  invite  and  request  ...  all  loyal  and  law-abiding 
people  ...  to  render  to  the  Almighty  and  merciful  Ruler 
of  the  universe  homages  and  confessions. — Proclamation  of 
Day  of  Prayer,  July  7,  1864.  Complete  Works,  II,  544. 

Again  the  blessings  of  health  and  abundant  harvest  claim 
our  profoundest  gratitude  to  Almighty  God. — Annual  Address 
to  Congress,  December  6,  1864.  Complete  Works,  II,  604. 

You  all  may  recollect  that  in  taking  up  the  sword  thus 
forced  into  our  hands,  this  government  appealed  to  the  prayers 
of  the  pious  and  good,  and  declared  that  it  placed  its  whole 
dependence  upon  the  favor  of  God.  I  now  humbly  and  rev 
erently,  in  your  presence,  reiterate  the  acknowledgment  of  that 
dependence,  not  doubting  that,  if  it  shall  please  the  Divine 
Being  who  determines  the  destinies  of  nations,  this  shall  re 
main  a  united  people,  and  that  they  will,  humbly  seeking  the 
Divine  guidance,  make  their  prolonged  national  existence  a 
source  of  new  benefits  to  themselves  and  their  successors,  and 
to  all  classes  and  conditions  of  mankind. — Address  to  Com 
mittee  from  Evangelical  Lutheran  General  Synod,  May  6, 
1862.  Complete  Works,  II,  148. 

Relying,  as  I  do,  upon  Almighty  Power,  and  encouraged, 
as  I  am,  by  the  resolutions  which  you  have  just  read, 


298    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

with  the  support  which  I  receive  from  Christian  men,  I 
shall  not  hesitate  to  use  all  the  means  at  my  control  to  secure 
the  termination  of  this  rebellion,  and  will  hope  for  success. — 
Address  to  Committee  of  Sixty-five  from  Presbyterian  Gen 
eral  Assembly,  May  30,  1863.  Complete  Works,  II,  342. 

I  expect  [my  Second  Inaugural]  to  wear  as  well  as — per 
haps  better  than — anything  I  have  produced ;  but  I  believe  it  is 
not  immediately  popular.  Men  are  not  flattered  by  being 
shown  that  there  has  been  a  difference  of  purpose  between  the 
Almighty  and  them.  To  deny  it,  however,  in  this  case,  is  to 
deny  that  there  isya  God  governing  the  world.  It  is  a  truth 
which  I  thought  needed  to  be  told,  and,  as  whatever  of  humilia 
tion  there  is  in  it  falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought  others 
might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it. — Letter  to  Thurlow  Weed, 
March  15,  1865.  Complete  Works,  II,  661. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a 
just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat 
of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.  .  .  .  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  "  Woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  offenses !  For  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense 
cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one 
of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  must  needs 
come,  but  which  having  continued  through  His  appointed 
time,  He  now  will  remove  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North 
and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom 
the  offense  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from 
those  Divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God 
always  ascribe  to  Him.  Fondly  do  we  hope — perfectly  do  we 
pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth 
piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  un 
requited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the 
sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  must  it  be 


CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN     299 

said,  "The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in. — Second  Inaugural, 
March  4,  1865.  Complete  Works,  II,  657. 

NQ  one  of  the  foregoing  quotations  is  taken  from  a  private 
conversation,  nor  copied  from  an  unauthorized  source.  Some 
very  pleasing  selections  might  have  been  made  from  reason 
ably  well-accredited  sources,  but  all  of  the  foregoing  selec 
tions,  without  any  exception,  are  taken  from  the  authentic 
writings  and  addresses  of  Lincoln  as  compiled,  edited,  and 
authenticated  by  his  private  secretaries,  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay. 

We  might  go  much  farther  and  could  find  a  considerable 
body  of  additional  material,  but  this  is  sufficient  and  more 
than  sufficient  for  our  purpose.  In  these  utterances  may  be 
found  something  of  the  determinism  that  was  hammered  into 
Lincoln  by  the  early  Baptist  preachers  and  riveted  by  James 
Smith,  along  with  some  of  the  humanitarianism  of  Parker 
and  Channing,  and  much  which  lay  unstratified  in  Lincoln's 
own  mind  but  flowed  spontaneously  from  his  pen  or  dropped 
from  his  lips  because  it  was  native  to  his  thinking  and  had 
come  to  be  a  component  part  of  his  life.  Anyone  who  cares 
to  do  so  may  piece  these  utterances  together  and  test  his  suc 
cess  in  making  a  creed  out  of  them.  They  lend  themselves 
somewhat  readily  to  such  an  arrangement. 

In  the  following  arrangement  no  liberties  have  been  taken 
except  to  change  the  past  tense  to  the  present,  or  the  plural 
to  the  singular,  and  to  add  connectives,  and  preface  the  words 
"  I  believe."  Except  for  changes  such  as  these,  which  in  no 
way  modify  the  sense  or  natural  force  of  the  utterances,  the 
creed  which  follows  is  wholly  in  the  words  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  A  very  little  tampering  with  the  text  would  have  made 
smoother  reading,  but  this  is  not  necessary.  It  has  the  sim 
plicity  and  the  rugged  honesty  of  the  man  who  said  these 
words. 


300    THE  SOUL  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

THE  CREED  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
IN  HIS  OWN  WORDS 

I  believe  in  God,  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  our 
great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker,  our  Father  in  Heaven, 
who  notes  the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of 
our  heads. 

I  believe  in  His  eternal  truth  and  justice. 

I  recognize  the  sublime  truth  announced  in  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures  and  proven  by  all  history  that  those  nations  only  are 
blest  whose  God  is  the  Lord. 

I  believe  that  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well  as  of  men 
to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  overruling  power  of  God, 
and  to  invoke  the  influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit;  to  confess 
their  sins  and  transgressions  in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with 
assured  hope  that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and 
pardon. 

I  believe  that  it  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and  confess 
the  presence  of  the  Almighty  Father  equally  in  our  triumphs 
and  in  those  sorrows  which  we  may  justly  fear  are  a  punish 
ment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  presumptuous  sins  to  the  need 
ful  end  of  our  reformation. 

I  believe  that  the  Bible  is  the  best  gift  which  God  has  ever 
given  to  men.  All  the  good  from  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
is  communicated  to  us  through  this  book. 

I  believe  the  will  of  God  prevails.  Without  Him  all  human 
reliance  is  vain.  Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine  Being, 
I  cannot  succeed.  With  that  assistance  I  cannot  fail. 

Being  a  humble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  our  Heavenly 
Father,  I  desire  that  all  my  works  and  acts  may  be  according 
to  His  will;  and  that  it  may  be  so,  I  give  thanks  to  the  Al 
mighty,  and  seek  His  aid. 

I  have  a  solemn  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  finish  the  work 
I  am  in,  in  full  view  of  my  responsibility  to  my  God,  with 
malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with  firmness  in 
the  right  as  God  gives  me  to  see  the  right.  Commending 
those  who  love  me  to  His  care,  as  I  hope  in  their  prayers 
they  will  commend  me,  I  look  through  the  help  of  God  to  a 
joyous  meeting  with  many  loved  ones  gone  before. 


APPENDICES  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


APPENDIX  I 

EXTRACT  FROM  NEWTON  BATEMAN'S  LECTURE  ON 
LINCOLN   WITH   VARIANTS    OF   THE   FARE 
WELL    ADDRESS,    AT    SPRINGFIELD, 
FEBRUARY  11,  1861. 

BOTH  for  its  own  value  as  an  incident  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  because  it  affords  us  opportunity  of  understanding  the  ac 
curacy  of  Newton  Bateman's  verbal  memory,  the  following  is 
quoted  from  his  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  lecture  delivered 
many  times  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  and  printed  by  his 
family  in  1899  a^ter  ms  death: 

"On  the  eleventh  of  February,  1861,  on  the  day  preceding 
his  fifty-second  birthday,  Mr.  Lincoln  set  out  for  Washington. 
He  had  sent  special  invitations  to  a  few  of  his  old  friends  to 
accompany  him  as  far  as  Indianapolis.  That  I  was  included  in 
the  number,  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  remembering  with  peculiar 
pleasure.  That  note  of  invitation  is  preserved  among  my  most 
cherished  memorabilia  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  shall  ever  regret 
that  imperative  official  duties  would  not  allow  me  to  join  the 
party. 

"  But  I  accompanied  him  to  the  railroad  station,  and  stood 
by  his  side  on  the  platform  of  the  car,  when  he  delivered  that 
memorable  farewell  to  his  friends  and  neighbors.  Of  those,  an 
immense  concourse  had  assembled  to  bid  him  good-by.  The 
day  was  dark  and  chill,  and  a  drizzling  rain  had  set  in.  The 
signal  bell  had  rung,  and  all  was  in  readiness  for  the  departure, 
when  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  on  the  front  platform  of  the  special 
car — removed  his  hat,  looked  out  for  a  moment  upon  the  sea  of 
silent,  upturned  faces,  and  heads  bared  in  loving  reverence  and 
sympathy,  regardless  of  the  rain;  and,  in  a  voice  broken  and 
tremulous  with  emotion  and  a  most  unutterable  sadness,  yet 
slow  and  measured  and  distinct  and  with  a  certain  prophetic 
far-off  look  which  no  one  who  saw  can  ever  forget,  began : 

803 


304  APPENDICES 

" '  My  friends,  no  one,  not  in  my  position  can  appreciate  the 
sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  To  this  people  I  owe  all  that  I 
am.  Here  I  have  lived  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Here 
my  children  were  born,  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried. 
I  know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see  you  again.  A  duty  devolves 
upon  me  which  is  greater,  perhaps,  than  that  which  has  de 
volved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days  of  Washington.  He 
never  would  have  succeeded,  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Pro 
vidence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot 
succeed  without  the  same  divine  aid  which  sustained  him;  and 
upon  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance  and  support. 
And  I  hope  you,  my  friends,  will  pray  that  I  may  receive  that 
divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  and  with 
which  success  is  certain.  Again,  I  bid  you  all  an  affectionate 
farewell/ 

"  His  pale  face  was  literally  wet  with  tears  as  he  re-entered 
the  car,  and  the  train  rolled  out  of  the  city,  which  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  to  enter  no  more — till,  his  great  work  finished  he 
would  come  back  from  the  war,  a  victor  and  a  conqueror  though 
with  the  seal  of  death  upon  his  visage.  Some  politicians  derided 
the  solemn  words  of  that  farewell— but  I  knew  they  were  the 
utterances  of  his  inmost  soul — never  did  speech  of  man  move  me 
as  that  did.  Seeing  every  mournful  tremor  of  those  lips — noting 
every  shadow  that  flitted  over  that  face — catching  every  inflec 
tion  of  that  voice — the  words  seemed  to  drop,  every  one,  into  my 
heart,  and  to  be  crystallized  in  my  memory.  I  hurried  back  to  my 
office,  locked  the  door  (for  I  felt  that  I  must  be  alone),  wrote 
out  the  address  from  memory  and  had  it  published  in  the  city 
papers  in  advance  of  the  reporters.  And  when  the  reports  of 
the  stenographers  were  published,  they  differed  from  mine  in 
only  two  or  three  words,  and  as  to  even  those,  I  have  always 
believed  that  mine  were  right  for  the  speech  was  engraved  on  my 
heart  and  my  memory,  and  I  had  but  to  copy  the  engraving." — 
Abraham  Lincoln,  din  address  by  Hon.  Newton  Bateman,  LL.D., 
published  by  the  Cadmus  Club,  1899,  Galesburg. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Farewell  Address,  as  given  by  Mr.  Bateman 
in  the  foregoing  quotation,  would  appear  to  have  undergone  some 
revision  by  him  after  its  printing.  He  says  that  he  furnished  it 
to  the  press  and  that  it  came  out  in  advance  of  the  version  taken 
down  by  the  reporter.  On  this  point  his  memory  appears  to  be 
correct.  The  Illinois  State  Journal  of  February  12,  1861,  con- 


APPENDICES  305 

tains  a  report  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  address,  which  is  almost  certainly 
that  furnished  by  Mr.  Bateman. 

Lincoln's  Farewell  Address  as  Printed  in  the  Illinois  State 
Journal,  February  12,  1860,  probably  from  the  notes  of  Hon. 
Newton  Bateman. 

"  Friends,  no  one  who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like  position, 
can  understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour,  nor  the  oppressive 
sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.'  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  I  have  lived  among  you,  and  during  all  that  time  I  have 
received  nothing  but  kindness  at  your  hands.  Here  I  have  lived 
from  my  youth  until  now  I  am  an  old  man.  Here  the  most 
sacred  ties  of  earth  were  assumed;  here  all  of  my  children 
were  born,  and  here  one  of  them  lies  buried.  To  you,  dear 
friends,  I  owe  all  that  I  have,  all  that  I  am.  All  the  strange, 
checkered  past  seems  now  to  crowd  upon  my  mind.  Today  I 
leave  you:  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more  difficult  than  that  which 
devolved  upon  General  Washington.  Unless  the  great  God  who 
assisted  him  shall  be  with  me  and  aid  me,  I  must  fail.  But  if 
the  same  Omniscient  Mind  and  the  same  Almighty  Arm  that 
directed  and  protected  him  shall  guide  and  support  me,  I  shall 
not  fail;  I  shall  succeed.  Let  us  all  pray  that  the  God  of  our 
fathers  may  not  forsake  us  now.  To  Him  I  commend  you  all; 
permit  me  to  ask  that  with  equal  sincerity  [the  word  is  printed 
security  but  corrected  with  pen]  and  faith,  you  all  will  invoke 
His  wisdom  and  guidance  for  me.  With  these  few  words  I 
must  leave  you — for  how  long  I  know  not.  Friends,  one  and 
all,  I  must  now  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." 

The  So-called  Shorthand  Report 

The  so-called  shorthand  report  appears  on  close  examination 
not  to  be  a  shorthand  report,  but  is  that  which  appeared  in  the 
Chicago  and  other  papers  from  the  Hay  and  Lincoln  revision, 
more  or  less  garbled  in  telegraphic  transmission. 

The  Lincoln-Hay  Version  of  the  Farewell  Address 

"  This  address  was  correctly  printed  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Century  Magazine  for  December,  1887,  from  the  original  manu 
script,  having  been  written  down  after  the  train  started,  partly 


306  APPENDICES 

by  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  hand  and  partly  by  that  of  his  private 
secretary  from  his  dictation." — NICOLAY  AND  HAY,  Life  of  Lin 
coln,  II,  291. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  we  do  not  have  any  verbatim  report 
of  the  precise  words  which  Lincoln  uttered;  but  the  Illinois 
Historical  Society  has  accepted  this  as  the  accredited  version. 
It  is  certainly  that  which  Lincoln  wished  to  be  remembered  as 
having  said;  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  in  one  or  two  of  the 
variant  words  Bateman  may  have  recalled  it  more  accurately 
than  Lincoln  himself: 

"  My  friends :  No  one  not  in  my  situation,  can  appreciate  my 
feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place,  and  the  kind 
ness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything.  Here  I  have  lived  a 
quarter  of  a  century  and  have  passed  from  a  youth  to  an  old 
man.  Here  my  children  have  been  born  and  one  is  buried.  I 
now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may  return, 
with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon 
Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who 
ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With  that  assistance  I 
cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him,  who  can  go  with  me  and  remain 
with  you  and  be  everywhere  for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope 
that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I 
hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affec 
tionate  farewell." 


APPENDIX  II 

"HIGHHANDED  OUTRAGE  AT  UTICA"1 
By  ARTEMUS  WARD 

BISHOP  FOWLER  and  other  lecturers  and  authors  have  drawn  for 
us  beautiful  pictures  of  Lincoln  reading  to  his  Cabinet  a  chapter 
in  the  Bible  before  submitting  his  draft  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation.  The  true  story  of  that  incident  is  related  in  the 
foregoing  pages.  It  may  be  that  some  readers  who  are  un 
familiar  with  the  now  little-read  writings  of  "  Artemus  Ward  " 
will  be  glad  to  know  precisely  what  it  was  that  the  President 
read  on  that  day;  and  as  the  chapter  is  very  short,  it  will  be 
given  herewith. 

No  form  of  literature  is  more  evanescent  than  humor.  The 
fun-loving  public  of  one  generation  labors  hard  to  discover  the 
reasons  why  other  generations  laughed  over  the  old-time  jokes. 
But  there  are  elements  in  Artemus  Ward  that  still  provoke  a 
smile.  The  chapter  which  amused  Lincoln  on  that  day  related 
to  the  virtue  of  a  community  which  would  not  permit  the  exhi 
bition  of  Artemus  Ward's  famous  Wax  Works  because  the  re 
production  of  the  Last  Supper  contained  the  figure  of  Judas. 
Some  reader  may  need  to  be  told  that  there  was  no  such  show. 
The  author  of  this  and  the  other  burlesques  that  bore  the  name 
of  Artemus  Ward  (Charles  F.  Browne),  presented  himself  in 
these  sketches  as  a  good-natured  humbug,  running  a  "highly 
moral  show  "  with  "  Wax-figgers  "  and  other  attractions.  He 
was  never  so  delightful  as  when  disclosing  his  own  shams,  as 
when  the  mob  pulled  the  hay  out  of  the  fat  man. 

Browne's  book  had  a  chapter  in  which  he  assisted  Lincoln  to 
form  his  Cabinet.  His  first  assistance  was  to  turn  out  all  the 
office-seekers  by  threatening  to  turn  his  "  Boy  Constrictor  "  in 

1The  chapter,  sometimes  alleged  to  have  been  from  the  Bible,  which 
Lincoln  read  to  his  cabinet  before  submitting  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation. 

307 


308  APPENDICES 

among  them;  and  then  advised  Mr.  Lincoln  to  fill  his  Cabinet 
with  Showmen,  all  of  whom  were  honest  and  had  nary  a  politic ; 
"  for  particulars  see  small  bills."  This  and  other  chapters  de 
lighted  Lincoln;  but  the  one  he  read  to  his  Cabinet  just  before 
presenting  the  second  draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
was  the  following: 

High-handed  Outrage  at  Utica 

In  the  Paul  of  1856,  I  showed  my  show  in  Utiky,  a  trooly 
grate  sitty  in  the  State  of  New  York. 

The  people  gave  me  a  cordyal  recepshun.  The  press  was 
loud  in  her  prases. 

1  day  as  I  was  giving  a  description  of  my  Beests  and  Snaiks 
in  my  usual  flowry  stile  what  was  my  skorn  &  disgust  to  see  a 
big  burly  fellew  walk  up  to  the  cage  containin  my  wax  figgers 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  cease  Judas  Iscarrot  by  the  feet  and 
drag  him  onto  the  ground.  He  then  commenced  fur  to  pound 
him  as  hard  as  he  cood. 

"  What  under  the  son  are  you  abowt  ?  "  cried  I. 

Sez  he,  "  What  did  you  brung  this  pussylanermus  cuss  here 
fur?  "  &  he  hit  the  wax  rigger  another  tremjis  blow  on  the  hed. 

Sez  I,  "  You  egrejes  ass,  that  air's  a  wax  figger — a  represen- 
tashun  of  the  false  Tostle." 

Sez  he,  "  That's  all  very  well  fur  you  to  say  but  I  tell  you, 
old  man,  that  Judas  Iscarrot  can't  show  hisself  in  Utiky  by  a 
darn  site ! "  with  whuch  observashun  he  caved  in  Judassis  hed. 
The  young  man  belonged  to  1  of  the  first  famerlies  in  Utiky.  I 
sood  him,  and  the  Joory  brawt  in  a  verdick  of  Arson  in  the  3rd 
degree. 


APPENDIX  III 

THE  CONVERSION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
By  the  REV.  EDWARD  L.  WATSON 

THE  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  so  much  in  debate  that  I 
feel  called  upon  to  give  the  following  narrative  of  an  event  of 
which  little  seems  to  be  known — and  which  is  of  real  importance 
in  understanding  the  man.  He  has  been  called  an  infidel — an 
unbeliever  of  varying  degrees  of  blatancy.  That  he  was  a 
Christian  in  the  real  sense  of  the  term  is  plain  from  his  life. 
That  he  was  converted  during  a  Methodist  revival  seems  not  to 
be  a  matter  of  common  report.  The  personal  element  of  this 
narrative  is  necessary  to  unfold  the  story.  In  1894  I  was 
appointed  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Hennepin  Avenue  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  by  Bishop  Cyrus  D.  Foss, 
being  transferred  from  Frederick,  Md.,  a  charge  in  Baltimore 
Conference.  It  was  in  October  that  we  entered  the  parsonage, 
which  was  a  double  house,  the  other  half  being  rented  by  the 
trustees.  Shortly  after  our  occupancy  of  the  church  house 
William  B.  Jacquess  moved  into  the  rented  half  of  the  property, 
and  through  this  fact  I  became  acquainted  with  Col.  James 
F.  Jacquess,  his  brother.  At  this  time  Colonel  Jacquess  was  an 
old  man  of  eighty  years  or  more,  of  commanding  presence  and 
wearing  a  long  beard  which  was  as  white  as  snow.  His  title 
grew  out  of  the  fact  of  his  being  the  commanding  officer  of  the 
Seventy-third  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  known  as  the  Preacher 
Regiment.  Its  name  was  given  through  the  publication  in  the 
Cincinnati  Commercial  in  September,  1862,  of  the  roster  of  its 
officers : 

.Colonel — Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess,  D.D.,  late  president  of 
Quincy  College. 

Lieutenant-Colonel — Rev.  Benjamin  F.  Northcott. 

Major — Rev.  William  A.  Presson. 

Captains — Company  B,  Rev.  W.  B.  M.  Colt;  Company  C, 
Rev.  P.  McNutt;  Company  F,  Rev.  George  W.  Montgomery; 

309 


310  APPENDICES 

Company  H,  Rev.  James  I.  Davidson;  Company  I,  Rev.  Peter 
Wallace;  Company  K,  Rev.  R.  H.  Laughlin. 

Six  or  seven  of  the  twenty  lieutenants  were  also  licensed 
Methodist  preachers.  Henry  A.  Castle,  sergeant-major,  was  the 
author  of  the  article  and  a  son-in-law,  if  I  mistake  not,  of  Colonel 
Jacquess. 

The  history  of  this  regiment  is  in  brief,  as  follows:  It  was 
organized  at  the  instance  of  Governor  Dick  Yates,  under  Colonel 
Jacquess,  in  August,  1862,  at  Camp  Butler,  in  Illinois,  and  be 
came  part  of  General  Buell's  army.  It  fought  nobly  at  Perry- 
ville,  and  in  every  battle  in  which  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland 
was  engaged,  from  October,  1862,  to  the  rout  of  Hood's  army 
at  Nashville.  Its  dead  were  found  at  Murfreesboro,  Chicka- 
mauga,  Missionary  Ridge,  where  Colonel  Jacquess  won  especial 
distinction,  and  in  the  succession  of  battles  from  Chattanooga 
to  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  It  was  frequently  complimented  by  the 
commanding  generals  and  was  unsurpassed  in  bravery  and  en 
durance.  It  left  the  State  one  of  the  largest,  and  returned  one 
of  the  smallest,  having  lost  two-thirds  of  its  men  in  its  three 
years'  service. 

Colonel  Jacquess  was  its  only  colonel  and  came  home  disabled 
by  wounds  received  at  Chickamauga,  where  two  horses  were 
shot  under  him.  He  refused  to  the  last  (1897)  to  receive  a  pen 
sion,  until  in  his  extreme  old  age,  at  the  urgent  request  of  the 
Society  of  the  Survivors  of  the  Seventy-third  Illinois,  he  al 
lowed  it  to  be  applied  for.  He  pathetically  said :  "  My  grand 
fathers  were  Revolutionary  soldiers  and  you  could  get  up  a  row 
if  you  mentioned  pensions.  My  father  and  my  uncles  were  in 
the  War  of  1812,  and  would  take  none.  I  had  hoped  not  to 
receive  one — but  I  am  unable  now  to  do  anything,  and  it  has 
been  my  desire,  and  not  the  fault  of  the  government,  that  I 
have  never  received  a  pension."  These  words  were  spoken  in 
1897 — and  not  long  afterward  Colonel  Jacquess  went  to  his 
reward. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  war  President  Lincoln  sent  Colonel 
Jacquess  as  a  secret  emissary  to  arrange  for  peace  and  the 
settlement  of  the  slave  question,  so  as  to  avert  further  shedding 
of  blood.  His  adventures  in  this  role  are  of  thrilling  interest. 
The  foregoing  is  told  to  show  the  quality  of  the  man  whom  it 
was  my  privilege  to  meet  in  1896,  when  he  was  in  extreme  old 
age.  The  honors  conferred  upon  him  by  President  Lincoln  and 


APPENDICES  311 

the  confidence  reposed  in  him  grew  out  of  events  which  preceded 
the  war.  This  was  no  other  than  the  conversion  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
under  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess,  at  Springfield, 
111.,  in  the  year  1839.  The  Rev.  James  F.  Jacquess  was  stationed 
at  this  new  town — then  of  but  a  few  thousand  inhabitants — in 
1839,  when  Lincoln  met  him  during  a  series  of  revival  services 
conducted  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Lincoln  had  but 
recently  come  to  the  town — having  removed  from  New  Salem, 
which  was  in  a  decadent  state.  As  a  member  of  the  Legislature, 
Lincoln  had  been  a  chief  agent  in  establishing  the  State  capital 
at  Springfield,  and  though  in  debt  and  exceedingly  poor,  he  hoped 
to  find  friends  and  practice  in  the  growing  town.  He  was  then 
thirty  years  of  age  and  had  had  few  advantages  of  any  sort. 
It  was  on  a  certain  night,  when  the  pastor  preached  from  the 
text,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again,"  that  Lincoln  was  in  attendance 
and  was  greatly  interested.  After  the  service  he  came  round  to 
the  little  parsonage,  and  like  another  Nicodemus,  asked,  "  How 
can  these  things  be  ?  "  Mr.  Jacquess  explained  as  best  he  could 
the  mystery  of  the  new  birth  and  at  Lincoln's  request,  he  and 
his  wife  kneeled  and  prayed  with  the  future  President.  It  was 
not  long  before  Mr.  Lincoln  expressed  his  sense  of  pardon  and 
arose  with  peace  in  his  heart. 

The  narrative,  as  told  thus  far,  is  as  my  memory  recalled  it. 
Since  writing  it,  the  same  as  told  by  Colonel  Jacquess  has  re 
cently  been  discovered  by  me  in  Minutes  of  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Eleventh  Annual  Reunion  Survivors  Seventy-third  Regiment, 
Illinois  Infantry,  Volunteers  (page  30),  a  copy  of  which  is 
before  me.  This  meeting,  the  last  (probably),  that  Colonel 
Jacquess  attended,  was  held  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  September 
28,  29,  1897,  in  the  Supreme  Court  room  of  the  State  Capitol 
Building,  Springfield,  111.  To  quote  Colonel  Jacquess :  "  The 
mention  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  recalls  to  my  mind  an  occurrence 
that  perhaps  I  ought  to  mention.  I  notice  that  a  number  of 
lectures  are  being  delivered  recently  on  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Bishop  Fowler  has  a  most  splendid  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln, 
but  they  all,  when  they  reach  one  point  run  against  a  stone  wall, 
and  that  is  in  reference  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  sentiments.  I 
happen  to  know  something  on  that  subject  that  very  few  persons 
know.  My  wife,  who  has  been  dead  nearly  two  years,  was  the 
only  witness  of  what  I  am  going  to  state  to  you  as  having  oc 
curred.  Very  soon  after  my  second  year's  work  as  a  minister 


312  APPENDICES 

in  the  Illinois  Conference,  I  was  sent  to  Springfield.  There  were 
ministers  in  the  Illinois  Conference  who  had  been  laboring  for 
twenty-five  years  to  get  to  Springfield,  the  capital  of  the  State. 
When  the  legislature  met  there  were  a  great  many  people  here, 
and  it  was  thought  to  be  a  matter  of  great  glory  among  the 
ministers  to  be  sent  to  Springfield.  But  I  was  not  pleased  with 
my  assignment.  I  felt  my  inability  to  perform  the  work.  I  did 
not  know  what  to  do.  I  simply  talked  to  the  Lord  about  it, 
however,  and  told  Him  that  unless  I  had  help  I  was  going  to  run 
away.  I  heard  a  voice  saying  to  me,  '  Fear  not,'  and  I  under 
stood  it  perfectly.  Now  I  am  coming  to  the  point  I  want  to 
make  to  you.  I  was  standing  at  the  parsonage  door  one  Sunday 
morning,  a  beautiful  morning  in  May,  when  a  little  boy  came 
up  to  me  and  said :  *  Mr.  Lincoln  sent  me  around  to  see  if  you 
was  going  to  preach  today/  Now,  I  had  met  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  I 
never  thought  any  more  of  Abe  Lincoln  than  I  did  of  any  one 
else.  I  said  to  the  boy :  '  You  go  back  and  tell  Mr.  Lincoln  that 
if  he  will  come  to  church  he  will  see  whether  I  am  going  to 
preach  or  not/  The  little  fellow  stood  working  his  fingers  and 
finally  said :  'Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  he  would  give  me  a  quarter  if 
I  would  find  out  whether  you  are  going  to  preach/  I  did  not 
want  to  rob  the  little  fellow  of  his  income,  so  I  told  him  to  tell 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  I  was  going  to  try  to  preach.  I  was  always 
ready  and  willing  to  accept  any  assistance  that  came  along,  and 
whenever  a  preacher,  or  one  who  had  any  pretense  in  that  direc 
tion,  would  come  along  I  would  thrust  him  into  my  pulpit  and 
make  him  preach,  because  I  felt  that  anybody  could  do  better 
than  I  could. 

"  The  church  was  filled  that  morning.  It  was  a  good-sized 
church,  but  on  that  day  all  the  seats  were  filled.  I  had  chosen 
for  my  text  the  words :  '  Ye  must  be  born  again/  and  during  the 
course  of  my  sermon  I  laid  particular  stress  on  the  word  '  must/ 
Mr.  Lincoln  came  into  the  church  after  the  services  had  com 
menced,  and  there  being  no  vacant  seats,  chairs  were  put  in  the 
altar  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Governor 
French  and  wife  sat  in  the  altar  during  the  entire  services,  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  my  left  and  Governor  French  on  my  right,  and  I 
noticed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  to  be  deeply  interested  in 
the  sermon.  A  few  days  after  that  Sunday  Mr.  Lincoln  called 
on  me  and  informed  me  that  he  had  been  greatly  impressed  with 
my  remarks  on  Sunday  and  that  he  had  come  to  talk  with  me 


APPENDICES  313 

further  on  the  matter.  I  invited  him  in,  and  my  wife  and  I 
talked  and  prayed  with  him  for  hours.  Now,  I  have  seen  many 
persons  converted;  I  have  seen  hundreds  brought  to  Christ,  and 
if  ever  a  person  was  converted,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  converted 
that  night  in  my  house.  His  wife  was  a  Presbyterian,  but  from 
remarks  he  made  to  me  he  could  not  accept  Calvinism.  He  never 
joined  my  church,  but  I  will  always  believe  that  since  that  night 
Abraham  Lincoln  lived  and  died  a  Christian  gentleman." 

Here  ends  the  narrative  of  Colonel  Jacquess.    Now  compare 
that  which  my  memory  preserved  for  the  past  thirteen  years 
and  the  Colonel's  own  printed  account,  and  the  discrepancies 
are  small.    It  is  with  pleasure  I  am  able  to  confirm  my  memory 
by  the  words  of  the  original  narrator.     It  is  with  no  small 
degree  of  pleasure  that  I  am  able  to  prove  that  Methodism  had 
a  hand  in  the  making  of  the  greatest  American.    Colonel  James 
F.  Jacquess  has  gone  to  his  reward,  but  it  is  his  honor  to  have 
been  used  by  his  Master  to  help  in  the  spiritualization  of  the 
great  man  who  piloted  our  national  destinies  in  a  time  of  ex 
ceeding  peril.     It  is  an  honor  to  him,  and  through  him  to  the 
denomination  of  which  he  was  a  distinguished  member. 
BALTIMORE,  MD. 
Methodist  Christian  Advocate 
November  n,  1909. 


APPENDIX  IV 
THE  REED  LECTURE 

THE  LATER  LIFE  AND  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENTS  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN1 

WHILE  the  fate  and  future  of  the  Christian  religion  in  nowise 
depends  upon  the  sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  yet  the  life 
and  character  of  this  remarkable  man  belong  to  the  public, 
to  tell  for  evil  or  for  good  on  coming  generations;  and  as  the 
attempt  has  been  made  to  impute  to  him  the  vilest  sentiments, 
even  to  his  dying  day,  it  is  fitting  and  just  that  the  weakness  and 
infidelity  charged  upon  his  later  life  should  not  go  down  un 
challenged  to  posterity.  The  latest  biography  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
published  under  the  name  of  Col.  W.  H.  Lamon,  but  with  the 
large  co-operation  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Herndon,  concerns  itself  with 
the  endeavor  to  establish  certain  allegations  injurious  to  the 
good  name  of  the  illustrious  man,  whose  tragic  and  untimely 
death  has  consecrated  his  memory  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful 
nation.  Two  charges  in  this  biography  are  worthy  of  especial 
notice  and  disproof,  —  the  charge  that  he  was  born  a  bastard,  and 
the  charge  that  he  died  an  infidel.  Mr.  Lamon  begins  his  pleas 
ing  task  by  raising  dark  and  unfounded  insinuations  as  to  the 
legitimacy  of  his  hero,  and  then  occupies  from  twenty-five  to 
thirty  pages  with  evidence  to  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a 
confirmed  infidel,  and  died  playing  a  "  sharp  game  on  the  Chris 
tian  community  "  ;  that,  in  his  "  morbid  ambition  for  popularity," 
he  would  say  good  Lord  or  good  Devil,  "  adjusting  his  religious 
sentiments  to  his  political  interests."  In  meeting  these  insinua 
tions  and  charges  I  shall  necessarily  have  recourse  to  political 


accompanying  article  was  originally  prepared  by  its  author  (the 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Springfield,  111.),  as  a  lecture, 
and  has  been  repeatedly  given  in  that  form  to  various  audiences.  At  the 
request  of  the  editor  of  Scribner's  Monthly,  to  whom  it  seemed  that  the 
testimony  contained  in  the  lecture  was  of  permanent  value,  it  is  here 
presented  with  slight  alterations,  and  with  no  departure  from  the  rhetor 
ical  style  which  was  determined  by  its  original  purpose. 

314 


APPENDICES  315 

documents  and  papers,  but  it  shall  not  be  my  aim  to  parade  Mr. 
Lincoln's  political  opinions,  further  than  to  eliminate  from  his 
writings  and  speeches  his  religious  sentiments. 

As  to  the  ungracious  insinuation  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not 
the  child  of  lawful  wedlock,  I  have  only  to  say  that  it  is  an 
insinuation  unsupported  by  a  shadow  of  justifiable  evidence. 
The  only  thing  on  which  Mr.  Lamon  bases  the  insinuation  is, 
that  he  has  been  unable  to  find  any  record  of  the  marriage  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  parents.  Just  as  if  it  would  be  any  evidence 
against  the  fact  of  their  marriage  if  no  record  could  be  found. 
If  every  man  in  this  country  is  to  be  considered  as  illegitimate 
who  cannot  produce  his  parents'  certificate  of  marriage,  or  find 
a  record  of  it  in  a  family  Bible  anywhere,  there  will  be  a  good 
many  very  respectable  people  in  the  same  category  with  Mr. 
Lincoln.  Such  an  insinuation  might  be  raised  with  as  much 
plausibility  in  the  case  of  multitudes  of  the  early  settlers  of  the 
country.  It  is  a  questionable  act  of  friendship  thus  to  rake  "  the 
short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor,"  and  upon  such  slender 
evidence  raise  an  insinuation  so  unfounded.  But  I  am  prepared 
to  show  that  if  Mr.  Lamon  has  found  no  record  of  the  marriage 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  parents,  it  is  simply  because  he  has  not  extended 
his  researches  as  faithfully  in  this  direction  as  he  has  in  some 
others.  It  appears  that  there  is  a  well-authenticated  record  of 
the  marriage  of  Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy  Hanks,  and,  in 
the  same  connection,  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Sarah 
Lincoln.  Hearing  that  the  Hon.  J.  C.  Black,  of  Champaign,  111., 
a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  had  in  his  possession 
several  papers  given  to  him  soon  after  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  by  a 
member  of  the  family,  and  among  them  a  leaf  from  the  family 
Bible  containing  the  record  of  the  marriage  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
parents,  I  at  once  telegraphed  to  him  in  relation  to  this  record, 
and  have  in  my  possession  the  following  letter,  which  will  explain 
itself : 

CHAMPAIGN,  ILL.,  Jan.  8th,  1873. 
J.  A.  REED: 

DEAR  SIR— Your  telegram  of  the  7th  reached  me  this  A.  M.  In  reply 
permit  me  to  say  that  I  was  in  possession  of  the  leaf  of  which  you 
speak,  and  which  contained  the  record  of  the  marriage  of  Thos.  Lincoln 
and  Nancy  Hanks,  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Sarah  Lincoln. 
The  leaf  is  very  old,  and  is  the  last  page  of  the  Apocrypha.  It  was  given 
to  me,  with  certificate  of  genuineness,  by  Dennis  F.  Hanks  in  1866.  I 
have  sent  both  record  and  certificate  to  Wm.  P.  Black,  attorney  at  law 
131  La  Salle  Street,  Chicago,  111.,  and  duly  by  him  delivered  to  the  Illinois 


316  APPENDICES 

Historical  Association.  Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold  called  on  my  brother  and 
obtained  the  originals  for  use  in  a  revised  edition  of  his  life  of  Lincoln, 
and  I  understand  that  since  then  they  have  passed  into  the  hands  of 
Robt.  Lincoln,  Esq.,  where  they  were  when  I  last  heard  from  them. 
Hoping  that  what  I  have  written  may  be  of  some  use,  I  remain 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  C.  BLACK. 

Presuming  that  the  first  of  Colonel  Lamon's  libels  upon  Mr. 
Lincoln's  memory  is  thus  sufficiently  disposed  of,  I  proceed  to 
consider  the  charges  against  his  religious  life  and  character.  The 
best  refutation  of  these  charges  lies  on  the  pages  of  the  book 
in  which  they  are  advanced.  However  skeptical  Mr.  Lincoln 
may  have  been  in  his  earlier  life,  Mr.  Lamon  persists  in  assert 
ing  and  attempting  to  prove  that  he  continued  a  confirmed 
skeptic  to  the  last:  that  he  was  an  unbeliever  in  the  truth  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  died  an  infidel ;  that,  while  "  he  was  by 
no  means  free  from  a  kind  of  belief  in  the  supernatural,  he 
rejected  the  great  facts  of  Christianity  as  wanting  the  support 
of  authentic  evidence  " ;  that,  "  during  all  the  time  of  his  residence 
at  Springfield  and  in  Washington,  he  never  let  fall  from  his  lips 
an  expression  which  remotely  implied  the  slightest  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  as  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  men  " ;  that 
"  he  was  at  all  times  an  infidel."  From  twenty-five  to  thirty 
pages  of  evidence  is  produced  in  proof  of  this  allegation. 

But  all  this  positive  statement  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  persistent 
and  final  infidelity  is  contradicted  by  the  admissions  of  the  book 
itself.  It  is  admitted  that  there  did  come  a  time  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
life  at  Springfield  when  he  began  to  affiliate  with  Christian 
people,  and  to  give  his  personal  presence  and  support  to  the 
Church.  It  is  admitted  that  he  did  so  plausibly  identify  himself 
with  the  Christian  community  that  "  his  New  Salem  associates 
and  the  aggressive  deists  with  whom  he  originally  united  at 
Springfield  gradually  dispersed  and  fell  away  from  his  side." 
Here  is  the  fact,  openly  and  squarely  stated  by  Mr.  Lamon,  that 
Mr.  Lincoln,  even  while  at  Springfield,  did  make  such  a  change 
in  his  sentiments  and  bearing  toward  the  Christian  community, 
that  "  the  aggressive  deists  and  infidels  with  whom  he  originally 
united  gradually  dispersed  and  fell  away  from  his  side."  He 
no  sooner  turned  away  from  them  in  sentiment  than  they  turned 
away  from  him  in  fact. 

But  how  does  the  biographer  attempt  to  explain  this?    How 
does  he  account  for  this  admitted  and  observable  change  in  Mr. 


APPENDICES  317 

Lincoln's  life,  that  relieved  him  of  the  presence  of  so  much 
aggressive  deistical  company?  Why,  by  means  of  an  explana 
tion  that  kills  the  accusation  itself — an  explanation  that  fastens 
upon  Mr.  Lincoln  the  very  charge  of  hypocrisy  against  which  he 
professes  to  defend  him.  He  accounts  for  this  admitted  and  ob 
servable  change  in  the  attitude  of  Mr.  Lincoln  towards  the 
Christian  community,  not  by  supposing  that  there  was  any  sin 
cerity  about  it,  but  by  affirming  that  he  was  trying  "  to  play  a 
sharp  game  on  the  Christians  of  Springfield ! "  It  was  because 
"  he  was  a  wily  politician,  and  did  not  disdain  to  regulate  his 
religious  manifestations  with  reference  to  his  political  interests  " ; 
and  because,  "  seeing  the  immense  and  augmenting  power  of  the 
churches,  he  aspired  to  lead  the  religious  community,  foreseeing 
that  in  order  to  his  political  success  he  must  not  appear  an  enemy 
within  their  gates."  And  yet,  if  we  are  to  believe  Colonel  Lamon, 
he  was  an  enemy  all  the  while  at  heart;  and  while  attending 
church,  and  supporting  the  Gospel,  and  making  Sabbath  school 
speeches,  and  speeches  before  the  Bible  Society,  he  was  at  heart 
a  disbeliever  of  the  truth  and  an  antagonist  of  the  cause  which 
he  professed  to  be  supporting.  In  other  words,  he  was  all  these 
years  playing  the  arrant  hypocrite ;  deceiving  the  Christian  com 
munity  and  wheedling  it  for  political  purposes;  playing  the  role 
of  a  gospel  hearer  in  the  sanctuary,  and  a  hail  fellow  well  met 
with  profane  fellows  of  the  baser  sort  in  the  private  sanctum  of 
infidelity  or  "  aggressive  deism." 

Strangely  enough,  however,  Colonel  Lamon  and  his  companion 
in  authorship  not  only  praise  Mr.  Lincoln's  greatness,  but  laud 
his  singular  conscientiousness  and  integrity  of  motive  almost  to 
perfection.  Says  Mr.  Herndon,  "  He  was  justly  entitled  to  the 
appellation,  Honest  Abe  " ;  "  honesty  was  his  pole  star ;  con 
science,  the  faculty  that  loves  the  just  and  the  right,  was  the 
second  great  quality  and  forte  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character." 
"  He  had  a  deep,  broad,  living  conscience.  His  great  reason  told 
him  what  was  true  and  good,  right  and  wrong,  just  or  unjust, 
and  his  conscience  echoed  back  the  decision,  and  it  was  from 
this  point  he  spoke  and  wove  his  character  and  fame  among 
us.  His  conscience  ruled  his  heart."  [See  Herndon's  letter  in 
Carpenter's  Life  of  Lincoln.} 

In  confirmation  of  this,  Mr.  Lamon  goes  on  to  show  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  scorned  everything  like  hypocrisy  or  deceit.  In 
fact  he  makes  his  hero  to  be  such  a  paragon  of  honesty  and 


318  APPENDICES 

conscious  integrity  of  motive  that  he  would  not  undertake  to 
plead  a  bad  cause  before  a  jury  if  he  could  possibly  shift  the 
responsibility  over  on  to  some  other  lawyer,  whose  conscience 
was  not  quite  so  tender.  He  brings  in  the  testimony  of  a  most 
reputable  lawyer  of  another  place  in  confirmation  of  this,  who 
states :  "  That  for  a  man  who  was  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
both  a  lawyer  and  a  politician,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  most  honest 
man  I  ever  knew.  He  was  not  only  morally  honest  but  intel 
lectually  so.  He  could  not  reason  falsely;  if  he  attempted  it 
he  failed.  In  politics  he  never  would  try  to  mislead.  At  the 
bar,  when  he  thought  he  was  wrong,  he  was  the  weakest  lawyer 
I  ever  saw."  "  In  a  closely  contested  case  where  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  proved  an  account  for  a  client,  who  was,  though  he  knew  it 
not,  a  very  slippery  fellow,  the  opposing  attorney  afterward 
proved  a  receipt  clearly  covering  the  entire  case.  By  the  time 
he  was  through  Mr.  Lincoln  was  missing.  The  court  sent  for 
him  to  the  hotel.  *  Tell  the  judge/  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  that  I 
can't  come ;  my  hands  are  dirty  and  I  came  over  to  clean  them.' 5: 
Page  after  page  is  thus  taken  to  show  Mr.  Lincoln's  singular 
conscientiousness  and  honesty,  his  incapability  of  hypocrisy  or 
deceit,  as  a  lawyer,  a  politician  and  a  gentleman.  And  yet  these 
consistent  biographers  go  back  on  all  this  testimony  of  their  own 
mouths  when  they  come  to  explain  the  admitted  change  in  his 
life  when  he  began  to  lean  toward  the  church,  and  the  "  aggres 
sive  deists  "  parted  company  with  him.  Then  they  find  it  con 
venient  to  call  him  a  "  wily  politician,"  who  is  "  playing  a  sharp 
game  with  the  Christians  " ;  "  the  cautious  pretender  who  does 
not  disdain  to  regulate  his  religious  manifestations  with  reference 
to  his  political  interests."  They  saddle  upon  him  the  vilest 
hypocrisy  and  deceit,  and  make  him  "act  the  liar's  part,"  in 
order  to  send  him  down  to  posterity  an  infidel.  On  one  page 
they  reason  that  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  have  made  any  such 
admissions  of  his  belief  in  the  Christian  religion  as  have  been 
maintained,  as  such  admissions  would  be  contrary  to  his  well- 
known  character ;  on  the  next  page  they  affirm  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
could  not  act  the  hypocrite ;  and  on  a  third  they  do  not  hesitate 
to  attribute  to  him  the  very  grossest  duplicity,  in  their  zeal  to 
fasten  on  him  the  charge  of  permanent  skepticism.  They  go 
back  on  their  own  logic,  eat  their  own  argument,  and  give  the 
lie  to  the  very  charge  they  are  laboring  with  such  considerable 
pains  to  establish. 


APPENDICES  319 

The  book,  therefore,  I  repeat,  bears  on  its  own  pages  the  best 
refutation  of  the  charge  it  makes  against  Mr.  Lincoln.  Surely, 
such  serious  inconsistency  of  statement,  such  illogical  absurdity, 
even,  could  hardly  have  escaped  the  notice  of  the  biographers 
if  some  preconceived  opinion  had  not  prejudiced  their  minds 
and  blinded  their  eyes.  The  animus  of  the  book  ancl  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  written  are  only  too  apparent. 

Perhaps  it  might  suffice  to  rest  the  refutation  of  this  charge 
against  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  character  on  the  internal  evidence 
of  Colonel  Lamon's  vplume  with  which  I  have  thus  far  been  oc 
cupied.  But  there  is  something  to  be  said  concerning  the  authen 
ticity  and  accuracy  of  the  testimony  by  which  the  charge  seems 
to  be  supported. 

I  have  been  amazed  to  find  that  the  principal  persons  whose 
testimony  is  given  in  this  book  to  prove  that  their  old  friend 
lived  and  died  an  infidel,  never  wrote  a  word  of  it,  and  never 
gave  it  as  their  opinion  or  allowed  it  to  be  published  as  covering 
their  estimate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  religious  views.  They 
were  simply  familiarly  interviewed,  and  their  testimony  mis 
represented,  abridged  and  distorted  to  suit  the  purpose  of  the 
interviewer,  and  the  business  he  had  on  hand. 

The  two  gentlemen  whose  names  are  most  relied  upon,  and 
who  stand  first  on  the  list  of  witnesses  to  establish  the  charge 
these  biographers  have  made,  are  the  Hon.  John  T.  Stuart,  and 
Col.  Jas.  H.  Matheny,  of  Springfield,  old  and  intimate  friends  of 
Mr.  Lincoln. 

Hon.  John  T.  Stuart  is  an  ex-member  of  Congress,  and 
was  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  law  partner, — a  gentleman  of  the  high 
est  standing  and  ability  in  his  profesion,  and  of  unimpeachable 
integrity.  Mr.  Lamon  has  attributed  to  Mr.  Stuart  testimony 
the  most  disparaging  and  damaging  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  character 
and  opinions, — testimony  which  Mr.  Stuart  utterly  repudiates, 
both  as  to  language  and  sentiment,  as  the  following  letter 
shows : — 

SPRINGFIELD,  Dec.  I7th,  1872. 
REV.  J.  A.  REED: 

DEAR  SIR— My  attention  has  been  called  to  a  statement  in  relation 
to  the  religious  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  purporting  to  have  been  made 
by  me  and  published  in  Lamon's  Life  of  Lincoln.  The  language  of  that 
statement  is  not  mine;  it  was  not  written  by  me,  and  I  did  not  see  it 
until  it  was  in  print. 

I  was  once  interviewed  on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
opinions,  and  doubtless  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the  earlier  part  of 


320  APPENDICES 

his  life  an  infidel.  I  could  not  have  said  that  "  Dr.  Smith  tried  to  con 
vert  Lincoln  from  infidelity  so  late  as  1858,  and  couldn't  do  it."  In 
relation  to  that  point,  I  stated,  in  the  same  conversation,  some  facts 
which  are  omitted  in  that  statement,  and  which  I  will  briefly  re 
peat.  That  Eddie,  a  child  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  died  in  1848  or  1849, 
and  that  he  and  his  wife  were  in  deep  grief  on  that  account.  That 
Dr.  Smith,  then  Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield, 
at  the  suggestion  of  a  lady  friend  of  theirs,  called  upon  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  and  that  first  visit  resulted  in  great  intimacy  and  friendship 
between  them,  lasting  till  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  continuing  with 
Mrs.  Lincoln  till  the  death  of  Dr.  Smith.  I  stated  that  I  had  heard, 
at  the  time,  that  Dr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Lincoln  had  much  discussion  in 
relation  to  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  that  Dr.  Smith  had 
furnished  Mr.  Lincoln  with  books  to  read  on  that  subject,  and  among 
others  one  which  had  been  written  by  himself,  some  time  previous,  on 
infidelity;  and  that  Dr.  Smith  claimed  that  after  this  investigation  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  changed  his  opinion,  and  become  a  believer  in  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion :  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  never  con 
versed  upon  that  subject,  and  I  had  no  personal  knowledge  as  to  his 
alleged  change  of  opinion.  I  stated,  however,  that  it  was  certainly  true, 
that  up  to  that  time  Mr.  Lincoln  had  never  regularly  attended  any  place 
of  religious  worship,  but  that  after  that  time  he  rented  a  pew  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  and  with  his  family  constantly  attended  the 
worship  in  that  church  until  he  went  to  Washington  as  President.  This 
much  I  said  at  the  time,  and  can  now  add  that  the  Hon.  Ninian  W. 
Edwards,  the  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  has,  within  a  few  days, 
informed  me  that  when  Mr.  Lincoln  commenced  attending  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  he  admitted  to  him  that  his  views  had  undergone 
the  change  claimed  by  Dr.  Smith. 

I  would  further  say  that  Dr.  Smith  was  a  man  of  very  great  ability 
and  on  theological  and  metaphysical  subjects  had  few  superiors  and  not 
many  equals. 

Truthfulness  was  a  prominent  trait  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  and 
it  would  be  impossible  for  any  intimate  friend  of  his  to  believe  that  he 
ever  aimed  to  deceive,  either  by  his  words  or  his  conduct. 

Yours  truly, 

JOHN  T.   STUART. 

Similar  testimony,  to  the  extent  of  a  page  or  more  of  finely 
printed  matter,  Mr.  Lamon  attributes  to  Col.  Jas.  H.  Matheny, 
of  Springfield,  111.,  an  old  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  able 
lawyer  and  of  high  standing  in  the  community.  Mr.  Matheny 
testifies  that  he  never  wrote  a  word  of  what  is  attributed  to  him ; 
that  it  is  not  a  fair  representation  of  either  his  language  or  his 
opinions,  and  that  he  never  would  have  allowed  such  an  article 
to  be  published  as  covering  his  estimate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life 
and  character.  Here  is  what  this  gentleman  has  to  say,  given 
over  his  own  signature: — 

REV.  J.  A.  REED:  SPRINGFIELD,  Dec.  i6th,  1872. 

DEAR  SIR — The  language  attributed  to  me  in  Lamon's  book  is  not 
from  my  pen.  I  did  not  write  it,  and  it  does  not  express  my  sentiments 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  entire  life  and  character.  It  is  a  mere  collection  of 


APPENDICES  321 

sayings  gathered  from  private  conversations  that  were  only  true  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  earlier  life.  I  would  not  have  allowed  such  an  article  to  be 
printed  over  my  signature  as  covering  my  opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life 
and  religious  sentiments.  While  I  do  believe  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  been 
an  infidel  in  his  former  life,  when  his  mind  was  as  yet  unformed,  and 
his  associations  principally  with  rough  and  skeptical  men,  yet  I  believe 
he  was  a  very  different  man  in  later  life;  and  that  after  associating 
with  a  different  class  of  men,  and  investigating  the  subject,  he  was  a 
firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion.  Yours  truly, 

JAS.  H.  MATHENY. 

It  is  unnecessary  that  I  occupy  more  space  with  the  rest  of 
the  testimony,  as  there  is  none  of  it  given  over  the  signature 
of  anybody,  save  that  which  is  given  over  the  signature  of  W. 
H.  Herndon.  All  aside  from  this  bears  evidence  of  having  been 
manipulated  to  suit  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  wanted,  and  is 
either  contradictory,  or  fails  to  cover  the  whole  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
life.  Judge  Davis,  for  instance,  is  made  to  say :  "  I  don't  know 
anything  about  Lincoln's  religion,  nor  do  I  think  anybody  else 
knows  anything  about  it."  Of  what  value  can  the  testimony 
be  that  is  prefaced  with  such  declarations  of  knowing  nothing 
about  the  matter? 

John  G.  Nicolay  is  made  to  testify,  that  "  to  his  knowledge 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  change  his  views  after  he  came  to  Washing 
ton  " ;  and  yet  he  states  in  immediate  connection  that  "  he  does 
not  know  what  his  views  were,  never  having  heard  him  explain 
them." 

Jesse  W.  Fell  either  testifies,  or  is  made  to  testify,  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  skeptical  notions.  And  yet  Mr.  Fell  admits  that  it  "  was 
eight  or  ten  years  previous  to  his  death  "  that  he  believed  him 
to  be  entertaining  the  views  of  which  he  speaks,  "  and  that  he 
may  have  changed  his  sentiments  after  his  removal  from  among 
us."  All  this  would  be  strange  kind  of  testimony  on  which  to 
convict  Mr.  Lincoln  of  murder  in  the  presence  of  a  judge  and 
jury.  But  with  such  evidence  it  is  sought  to  convict  him  of 
infidelity. 

We  are  enabled  to  see,  therefore,  in  the  light  of  this  revela 
tion,  of  what  "  trustworthy  materials  "  this  book  is  composed ; 
how  much  Mr.  Lamon's  "  names  and  dates  and  authorities,  by 
which  he  strengthens  his  testimony,"  are  to  be  depended  upon; 
and  what  reason  unsuspecting  or  sympathizing  critics  and  journa 
lists  have  for  arriving  at  the  sage  conclusion  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
"  was,  in  his  habit  of  thought,  heterodox  in  the  extreme  to  the 
close  of  his  life,  and  a  very  different  man  from  what  he  was 


322  APPENDICES 

supposed  to  be."  The  evidence  of  this  book,  so  far  as  the  prom 
inent  witnesses  are  concerned,  and  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
later  years  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life,  is  not  only  utterly  untrust 
worthy,  but  even  an  ingenious  and  romantic  invention. 

Having  shown  what  claims  Mr.  Lamon's  book  has  to  being 
the  "  only  fair  and  reliable  history  "  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and 
views,  and  of  what  "  trustworthy  materials  "  it  is  composed,  I 
shall  now  give  the  testimony  I  have  collected  to  establish  what 
has  ever  been  the  public  impression,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in 
his  later  life,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  firm  believer  in  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  infidelity  of  his  earlier 
life  is  not  so  much  to  be  wondered  at,  when  we  consider  the 
poverty  of  his  early  religious  instruction  and  the  peculiar  influ 
ences  by  which  he  was  surrounded.  Gideon  Welles,  formerly 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  a  recent  article  in  the  Galaxy,  in  ac 
counting  for  the  late  and  peculiar  manifestation  of  faith  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  exhibited,  says :  "  It  was  doubtless  to  be  attributed 
in  a  great  measure  to  the  absence  of  early  religious  culture — a 
want  of  educational  advantages  in  his  youthful  frontier  life." 
This,  together  with  the  fact  that  his  youth  and  early  manhood 
were  spent  chiefly  among  a  rough,  illiterate  and  skeptical  class  of 
people,  is  amply  confirmed  by  Mr.  Lamon's  narrative. 

On  the  same  authority  it  appears  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  in 
his  former  life  read  but  few  books,  and  that  everything  he  had 
read,  of  an  intellectual  character,  bearing  on  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  was  of  an  infidel  sort.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  had 
ever  seen,  much  less  read,  a  work  on  the  evidences  of  Christian 
ity  till  his  interview  with  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  in  1848.  We  hear  of 
him  as  reading  Paine,  Voltaire  and  Theodore  Parker,  but  nothing 
on  the  other  side.  The  men  by  whom  he  was  surrounded  in  his 
earlier  life,  it  seems,  kept  him  well  supplied  with  their  kind  of 
literature.  He  was  familiar  with  some  of  the  master  spirits  of 
infidelity  and  theism,  but  had  never  grappled  with  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  as  presented  by  the  great  defenders  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

But  then  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind  was  of  too  much  greatness  and 
intellectual  candor  to  remain  the  victim  of  a  false  theory  in  the 
presence  of  clear  and  sufficient  intellectual  testimony.  And  he 
no  sooner,  in  the  providence  of  God,  was  placed  in  possession  of 
the  truth,  and  led  to  investigate  for  himself,  than  he  stood  firmly 
and  avowedly  on  the  side  of  the  Christian  religion. 


APPENDICES  323 

In  proof  of  this  statement,  I  first  of  all  produce  the  testimony 
of  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Mr.  Lincoln's  pastor  at  Springfield.  In  rela 
tion  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  opinion  of  Dr.  Smith,  it  is  only  necessary 
for  me  to  state  that  he  stood  so  high  in  his  esteem,  that  he  gave 
him  the  appointment  of  Consul  to  Glasgow.  Dr.  Smith  was  in 
Scotland  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  and  soon  after 
this  sad  event,  Mr.  Herndon  conceived  the  notion  of  collecting 
materials  for  his  intended  biography.  He  accordingly  addressed 
a  letter  to  Dr.  Smith  in  Scotland,  with  the  view  of  getting  some 
information  from  so  respectable  a  source  to  prove  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  died  an  infidel.  In  this  however  he  was  mistaken, 
to  his  evident  chagrin  and  disappointment.  I  shall  give  some 
extracts  from  Dr.  Smith's  printed  letter,  which  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Springfield  Journal  of  March,  1867,  in  which  he  gives 
his  opinion  of  both  Mr.  Herndon  and  Mr.  Lincoln. 

EAST  CAIN  NO,  SCOTLAND,  24th  Jan.  1867. 
W.  H.  HERNDON,  ESQ.: 

SIR — Your  letter  of  the  2Oth  Dec.  was  duly  received.  In  it  you  ask 
me  to  answer  several  questions  in  relation  to  the  illustrious  President. 
Abraham  Lincoln.  With  regard  to  your  second  question,  I  beg  leave 
to  say  it  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  prove  that  while  I  was  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield,  Mr.  Lincoln  did  avow  his 
belief  in  the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  I 
hold  that  it  is  a  matter  of  the  last  importance  not  only  to  the  present, 
but  all  future  generations  of  the  Great  Republic,  and  to  all  advocates 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  throughout  the  world,  that  this  avowal  on 
his  part,  and  the  circumstances  attending  it,  together  with  very  interesting 
incidents  illustrative  of  the  excellence  of  his  character,  in  my  possession, 
should  be  made  known  to  the  public.  I  am  constrained,  however,  most 
respectfully  to  decline  choosing  you  as  the  medium  through  which  such 
a  communication  shall  be  made  by  me.  [Omitting  that  portion  of  the 
letter  which  bears  on  Mr.  Herndon,  I  give  what  is  written  in  vindication 
of  Mr.  Lincoln. — J.  A.  R.]  My  intercourse  with  Abraham  Lincoln 
convinced  me  that  he  was  not  only  an  honest  man,  but  preeminently  an 
upright  man— ever  ready,  so  far  as  in  his  power,  to  render  unto  all  their 
dues. 

It  was  my  honor  to  place  before  Mr.  Lincoln  arguments  designed 
to  prove  the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  accompa 
nied  by  the  arguments  of  infidel  objectors  in  their  own  language.  To 
the  arguments  on  both  sides  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  a  most  patient,  impartial, 
and  searching  investigation.  To  use  his  own  language,  he  examined  the 
arguments  as  a  lawyer  who  is  anxious  to  reach  the  truth  investigates 
testimony.  The  result  was  the  announcement  by  himself  that  the  argu 
ment  in  favor  of  the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures 
was  unanswerable.  I  could  say  much  more  on  this  subject,  but  as  you 
are  the  person  addressed,  for  the  present  I  decline.  The  assassin  Booth, 
by  his  diabolical  act,  unwittingly  sent  the  illustrious  martyr  to  glory, 
honor,  and  immortality;  but  his  false  friend  has  attempted  to  send  him 
down  to  posterity  with  infamy  branded  on  his  forehead,  as  a  man  who, 


324  APPENDICES 

notwithstanding  all  he  suffered  for  his  country's  good,  was  destitute  of 
those  feelings  and  affections  without  which  there  can  be  no  real  excellency 
of  character.  Sir,  I  am  with  due  respect  your  obedient  servant, 

JAS.  SMITH. 

N.B. — It  will  no  doubt  be  gratifying  to  the  friends  of  Christianity  to 
learn  that  very  shortly  after  Mr.  Lincoln  became  a  member  of  my  con 
gregation,  at  my  request,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  assembly  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Bible  Society  of  Springfield,  he  delivered  an  address  the 
object  of  which  was  to  inculcate  the  importance  of  having  the  Bible 
placed  in  possession  of  every  family  in  the  State.  In  the  course  of  it 
he  drew  a  striking  contrast  between  the  Decalogue  and  the  moral  codes 
of  the  most  eminent  lawgivers  of  antiquity,  and  closed  (as  near  5s  I  can 
recollect)  in  the  following  language:  "It  seems  to  me  that  nothing 
short  of  infinite  wisdom  could  by  any  possibility  have  devised  and  given 
to  man  this  excellent  and  perfect  moral  code.  It  is  suited  to  men  in 
all  conditions  of  life  and  includes  all  the  duties  they  owe  to  their  Creator, 
to  themselves,  and  to  their  fellow-men."  J.  S. 

Mr.  Lamon,  aware  of  the  importance  of  Dr.  Smith's  testi 
mony,  attempts  to  break  the  force  of  it  by  the  argumentum  ad 
nauseam.  He  alludes  to  Dr.  Smith  as  a  gentleman  of  "  slender 
abilities  for  the  conversion  of  so  distinguished  a  person,  and 
as  having  in  his  zeal  composed  a  heavy  tract  out  of  his  own 
head  to  suit  the  particular  case,  and  that  he  afterwards  drew 
the  acknowledgment  from  Mr.  Lincoln  that  it  was  unanswer 
able,"  and  that  he  himself  is  the  only  man  that  can  testify  of 
such  an  admission  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  This  is  all  the 
gratuitous  assertion  of  a  man  who  is  driven  to  the  wall  for 
evidence  to  prove  his  point.  Now  John  T.  Stuart  has  already 
testified  to  Di.  Smith's  abilities  as  a  theologian  and  a  meta 
physician  having  few  superiors.  He  testifies  to  the  fact  that 
Dr.  Smith's  work  was  not  written  to  suit  Mr.  Lincoln's  case. 
It  was  written  previously,  before  Dr.  Smith  ever  saw  Mr.  Lin 
coln.  Nor  is  it  true  that  Dr.  Smith  is  the  only  one  who  can 
testify  to  an  admission  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  of  a  change 
of  sentiments.  There  are  many  residents  of  Springfield,  both 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  can  testify  to  this  admission.  I  give 
one  or  two  letters  as  a  sample. 

REV.  JAS.  REED  :  SPRINGFIELD,  Dec.  24th,  1872. 

DEAR  SIR— A  short  time  after  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  became  pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  city,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  "  I 
have  been  reading  a  work  of  Dr.  Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 
and  have  heard  him  preach  and  converse  on  the  subject,  and  I  am  now 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion." 

Yours  truly, 

N.  W.  EDWARDS. 


APPENDICES  325 

SPRINGFIELD,  Jan.  6th,  1873. 
REV.  J.  A.  REED: 

DEAR  SIR — 'Not  long  after  Dr.  Smith  came  to  Springfield,  and  I 
think  very  near  the  time  of  his  son's  death,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me. 
that  when  on  a  visit  somewhere,  he  had  seen  and  partially  read  a  work 
of  Dr.  Smith  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  which  had  led  him  to 
change  his  views  about  the  Christian  religion;  that  he  would  like  to  get 
that  work  to  finish  the  reading  of  it,  and  also  to  make  the  acquaintance 
of  Dr.  Smith.  I  was  an  elder  in  Dr.  Smith's  church,  and  took  Dr.  Smith 
to  Mr.  Lincoln's  office  and  introduced  him,  and  Dr.  Smith  gave  Mr. 
Lincoln  a  copy  of  his  book,  as  I  know,  at  his  own  request. 

Yours,  &c., 

THOS.  LEWIS. 

There  are  many  others  who  can  testify  that  Mr.  Lincoln, 
both  publicly  and  privately  while  at  Springfield,  made  the  ad 
mission  of  his  belief  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  He 
did  it  in  most  unequivocal  language,  in  addresses  before  the 
Bible  Society  and  in  Sabbath  school. 

I  next  refer  to  the  testimony  of  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  pastor  at  Washington  City.  Even  if,  before  his  election 
to  the  Presidency,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  entertained  the  sentiments 
attributed  to  him,  after  he  had  reached  the  pinnacle  of  political 
elevation,  there  was  certainly  no  necessity  for  him  any  longer 
to  be  "  playing  a  sharp  game  with  the  Christians,"  and  destroying 
his  peace  of  mind  by  wearing  the  mask  of  hypocrisy.  He  was 
surely  free  now  to  worship  where  he  felt  most  comfortable. 
But  we  no  sooner  find  him  in  Washington  than  we  find  him 
settling  down  under  the  ministry  of  Dr.  Gurley,  a  sound  and 
orthodox  minister  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  Dr.  Gurley  was 
his  intimate  friend,  and  spiritual  counselor  and  adviser,  during 
the  most  trying  and  difficult  time  of  his  life.  He  was  with  him 
not  only  in  the  hours  of  his  personal  family  bereavement,  but 
when  his  heart  was  heavy  and  perplexed  with  the  welfare  of 
his  country.  Having  been  associated  with  Dr.  Gurley  in  the 
charge  of  his  pulpit  for  a  time  previous  to  his  death,  and  being 
intimately  acquainted  with  him,  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
knowing  what  his  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  sentiments  were.  In 
the  funeral  oration  which  Dr.  Gurley  delivered  in  Washington, 
he  says: 

"  Probably  since  the  days  of  Washington  no  man  was  ever 
so  deeply  and  firmly  embedded  and  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people  as  Abraham  Lincoln.  Nor  was  it  a  mistaken  confi 
dence  and  love.  He  deserved  it — deserved  it  all.  He  merited 
it  by  his  character,  by  his  acts,  and  by  the  whole  tone  and  tenor 


326  APPENDICES 

of  his  life.  .  .  .  His  integrity  was  thorough,  all-pervading,  all- 
controlling  and  incorruptible.  He  saw  his  duty  as  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  a  great  and  imperiled  people,  and  he  determined 
to  do  his  duty,  seeking  the  guidance,  and  leaning  on  the  arm  of 
Him  of  whom  it  is  written :  '  He  giveth  power  to  the  faint, 
and  to  them  that  have  no  might  He  increaseth  strength/ 

"  Never  shall  I  forget  the  emphatic  and  deep  emotion  with 
which  he  said  in  this  very  room,  to  a  company  of  clergymen  who 
called  to  pay  their  respects  to  him  in  the  darkest  days  of  our 
civil  conflict :  *  Gentlemen,  my  hope  of  success  in  this  struggle 
rests  on  that  immutable  foundation,  the  justness  and  the  good 
ness  of  God;  and  when  events  are  very  threatening  I  shall  hope 
that  in  some  way  all  will  be  well  in  the  end,  because  our  cause 
is  just  and  God  will  be  on  our  side/  " 

This  was  uttered  when  Dr.  Gurley  was  not  aware,  as  I  sup 
pose,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  ever  been  charged  with  entertaining 
infidel  sentiments.  While  sitting  in  the  study  one  day  with  him, 
conversing  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  I  asked  him  about  the 
rumor  of  his  infidelity  then  being  circulated  by  Mr.  Herndon. 
He  said,  "  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  It  could  not  have  been 
true  of  him  while  here,  for  I  have  had  frequent  and  intimate 
conversations  with  him  on  the  subject  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Christian  religion,  when  he  could  have  had  no  motive  to  deceive 
me,  and  I  considered  him  sound  not  only  on  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion  but  on  all  its  fundamental  doctrines  and  teach 
ing.  And  more  than  that:  in  the  latter  days  of  his  chastened 
and  weary  life,  after  the  death  of  his  son  Willie,  and  his  visit 
to  the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  he  said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes, 
that  he  had  lost  confidence  in  everything  but  God,  and  that  he 
now  believed  his  heart  was  changed,  and  that  he  loved  the 
Saviour,  and  if  he  was  not  deceived  in  himself,  it  was  his  in 
tention  soon  to  make  a  profession  of  religion."  Language  to 
this  effect  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  appears,  used  in  conversation  with 
other  persons,  and  I  refer  next  to  the  corroborating  testimony 
of  Noah  Brooks,  Esq.,  now  associated  with  the  New  York 
Tribune.  This  gentleman  has  already  published  most  interesting 
testimony  in  relation  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  sentiments  in 
Harper's  Monthly  of  July,  1865.  In  order  that  his  testimony 
may  be  fully  appreciated,  I  will  here  state,  on  the  authority  oi 
a  mutual  friend,  that  "Mr.  Brooks  is  himself  an  earnest  Christiai 
man,  and  had  the  appointment  of  private  secretary  to  the  Presi- 


APPENDICES  327 

dent,  to  which  office  he  would  have  acceded  had  Mr.  Lincoln 
lived.  He  was  so  intimate  with  the  President  that  he  visited  him 
socially  at  times  when  others  were  refused  admission,  took  tea 
with  the  family,  spending  evenings  with  him,  reading  to  him, 
and  conversing  with  him  freely  on  social  and  religious  topics, 
and  in  my  opinion  knows  more  of  the  secret  inner  life  and  re 
ligious  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  at  least  during  the  term  of  his 
presidency,  than  any  man  living."  The  following  is  a  letter 
which  I  have  received  from  Mr.  Brooks  in  relation  to  his  views 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  sentiments: 

NEW  YORK,  Dec.  3ist,  1872. 
REV.  J.  A.  REED: 

MY  DEAR  SIR — In  addition  to  what  has  appeared  from  my  pen,  I  will 
state  that  I  have  had  many  conversations  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  were 
more  or  less  of  a  religious  character,  and  while  I  never  tried  to  draw 
anything  like  a  statement  of  his  views  from  him,  yet  he  freely  expressed 
himself  to  me  as  having  "  a  hope  of  blessed  immortality  through  Jesus 
Christ."  His  views  seemed  to  settle  so  naturally  around  that  statement, 
that  I  considered  no  other  necessary.  His  language  seemed  not  that 
of  an  inquirer,  but  of  one  who  had  a  prior  settled  belief  in  the  funda 
mental  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.  Once  or  twice,  speaking  to 
me  of  the  change  which  had  come  upon  him,  he  said,  while  he  could 
not  fix  any  definite  time,  yet  it  was  after  he  came  here,  and  I  am  very 
positive  that  in  his  own  mind  he  identified  it  with  about  the  time  of 
Willie's  death.  He  said,  too,  that  after  he  went  to  the  White  House 
he  kept  up  the  habit  of  daily  prayer.  Sometimes  he  said  it  was  only 
ten  words,  but  those  ten  words  he  had.  There  is  no  possible  reason 
to  suppose  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  ever  deceive  me  as  to  his  religious 
sentiments.  In  many  conversations  with  him,  I  absorbed  the  firm  con 
viction  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  heart  a  Christian  man,  believed  in  the 
Saviour,  and  was  seriously  considering  the  step  which  would  formally 
connect  him  with  the  visible  Church  on  earth.  Certainly,  any  suggestion 
as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  skepticism  or  infidelity,  to  me  who  knew  him  inti 
mately  from  1862  till  the  time  of  his  death,  is  a  monstrous  fiction— a 
shocking  perversion. 

Yours  truly, 

NOAH  BROOKS. 

The  following  extract  I  add  also  from  Mr.  Brooks's  article 
in  Harper's  Monthly  of  July,  1865  :  "  There  was  something  touch 
ing  in  his  childlike  and  simple  reliance  on  Divine  aid,  especially 
when  in  such  extremities  as  he  sometimes  fell  into ;  then,  though 
prayer  and  reading  the  Scriptures  was  his  constant  habit,  he 
more  earnestly  than  ever  sought  that  strength  which  is  promised 
when  mortal  help  faileth.  He  said  once,  'I  have  been  many 
times  driven  to  my  knees  by  the  overwhelming  conviction  that  I 
had  nowhere  else  to  go.  My  own  wisdom,  and  that  of  all  about 
me,  seemed  insufficient  for  that  day/  At  another  time  he  said, 


328  APPENDICES 

'  I  am  very  sure  that  if  I  do  not  go  away  from  here  a  wiser 
man,  I  shall  go  away  a  better  man  for  having  learned  here  what 
a  very  poor  sort  of  a  man  I  am/  " 

Mr.  Carpenter,  author  of  Six  Months  in  the  White  House, 
whose  intimacy  with  Mr.  Lincoln  gives  importance  to  his  testi 
mony,  says  that  "  he  believed  Mr.  Lincoln  to  be  a  sincere  Chris 
tian,"  and  among  other  proofs  of  it  gives  another  well-authenti 
cated  admission  (made  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  an  estimable  lady 
of  Brooklyn,  laboring  in  the  Christian  Commission)  of  a  change 
of  heart,  and  of  his  intention  at  some  suitable  opportunity  to 
make  a  profession  of  religion. 

Mr.  Newton  Bateman,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
in  the  State  of  Illinois,  a  gentleman  of  rare  literary  attainments, 
and  of  unquestionable  veracity,  has  given  very  important  testi 
mony  in  relation  to  one  particular  point,  more  especially,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  belief  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.  Both  Mr.  Hern- 
don  and  Mr.  Lamon  persist  in  asserting  that  Mr.  Lincoln  never 
used  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  except  to  deny  His  divinity,  and 
that  Mr.  Bateman  is  "  the  sole  and  only  man  who  dare  say 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God." 

Mr.  Bateman  testifies  that  in  1860,  Mr.  Lincoln  in  conversa 
tion  with  him  used  the  following  language :  "  I  know  that  there 
is  a  God,  and  that  He  hates  injustice  and  slavery.  I  see  the 
storm  coming,  and  I  know  that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has 
a  place  and  a  work  for  me,  and  I  think  He  has,  I  believe  I  am 
ready.  J  am  nothing,  but  truth  is  everything.  I  know  I  am 
right,  because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right,  for  Christ  teaches 
it  and  Christ  is  God.  I  have  told  them  a  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand;  and  Christ  and  reason  say  the  same,  and 
they  will  find  it  so,"  &c.  This  testimony  was  originally  given 
in  Holland's  Life  of  Lincoln.  Mr.  Herndon,  at  first  unwilling 
to  impeach  Mr.  Bateman's  veracity,  suggests  a  doubt  "  whether 
he  is  correctly  reported  in  Holland's  history  " ;  presently,  how 
ever,  summoning  courage,  he  ventures  the  affirmation :  "  On  my 
word  the  world  may  take  it  for  granted  that  Holland  is  wrong; 
that  he  does  not  state  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  correctly."  He  then 
goes  on  to  say  that  "  between  himself  and  Dr.  Holland,  Mr. 
Bateman  is  not  in  a  very  pleasant  situation."  We  have  seen, 
however,  that  Mr.  Herndon's  "  word,"  in  a  matter  where  his 
prejudices  are  so  violent  and  his  convictions  so  obstinate,  is 
hardly  a  sufficient  denial  with  which  to  oppose  the  deliberate 


APPENDICES  329 

and  unretracted  statement  of  an  intelligent  arid  reputable  wit 
ness.  And  Mr.  Bateman  has  no  need  to  be  disturbed,  so  long  as 
the  "  unpleasantness  "  of  his  situation  is  occasioned  by  no  more 
serious  discomfort  than  Mr.  Herndon's  unsupported  contradic 
tion.  As  the  matter  now  stands,  Mr.  Herndon  offers  a  denial, 
based  on  general  impressions  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  character, 
against  the  direct,  specific,  and  detailed  testimony  of  a  careful 
and  competent  man  as  to  what  he  heard  with  his  own  ears.  Mr. 
Herndon  simply  did  not  hear  what  Mr.  Bateman  did  hear;  and 
is  in  the  position  of  that  Irishman  on  trial  for  his  life,  who,  when 
one  witness  swore  directly  that  he  saw  the  accused  commit  the 
crime,  proposed  to  put  upon  the  stand  a  dozen  witnesses  who 
could  swear  they  did  not  see  him. 

Mr.  Lamon  also  states  that  Mr.  Bateman  is  a  respectable 
citizen,  whose  general  reputation  for  truth  and  veracity  is  not 
to  be  impeached,  but  his  story,  as  reported  in  Holland's  Life 
of  Lincoln,  is  so  inconsistent  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  whole  character 
that  it  must  be  rejected  as  altogether  incredible.  Unfortunately, 
however,  for  Mr.  Lamon,  he  has  not  so  impressed  us  with  the 
trustworthy  nature  of  the  materials  of  his  own  book,  as  that 
we  can  afford  to  distrust  the  honesty  and  integrity  of  either  Dr. 
Holland  or  Mr.  Bateman  for  his  sake.  If  anybody's  story  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  sentiments  is  to  be  "  rejected  as  incon 
sistent  and  altogether  incredible,"  the  testimony  thus  far  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  it  is  Mr.  Lamon's  story.  At  least  that  is 
the  "  unpleasant  situation  "  in  which  we  shall  leave  the  matter, 
so  far  as  Mr.  Bateman  and  Dr.  Holland  are  concerned  in  it. 

But  Mr.  Bateman  is  not  the  only  one  who  can  testify  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  use  the  name  of  the  Saviour,  and  believed  him 
to  be  the  Christ  of  God.  I  have  given  several  instances  already 
in  which  he  used  the  name  of  Christ  as  his  Saviour,  and  avowed 
that  he  loved  Him.  Moreover,  he  could  not  have  avowed  his 
belief  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  many  wit 
nesses  testify,  if  he  did  not  believe  Jesus  to  be  the  Christ  of 
God. 

To  the  various  testimony  which  we  have  thus  far  cited  it 
only  remains  for  me  to  add  the  testimony  of  his  own  lips.  In 
his  address  to  the  colored  people  of  Baltimore,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  presentation  of  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 
"  In  regard  to  this  great  Book,  I  have  only  to  say,  it  is  the 
best  gift  which  God  has  ever  given  to  man.  All  the  good  from 


330  APPENDICES 

the  Saviour  of  the  world  is  communicated  to  us  through  this 
Book." 

To  the  Hon.  H.  C.  Deming,  of  Connecticut,  he  said  that  the 
"  article  of  his  faith  was  contained  in  the  Saviour's  condensed 
statement  of  both  law  and  gospel — '  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself/  " 

Mr.  Herndon  affirms  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  believe  in 
the  "  Christian  dogma  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  " :  he  believed 
that  "  God  would  not  and  could  not  forgive  sin.  He  did  not 
believe  in  forgiveness  through  Christ,  nor  in  fact  in  any  doctrine 
of  forgiveness.  In  reading  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamations,  how 
ever,  we  find  that  he  does  very  distinctly  recognize  the  doctrine 
of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  on  the  part  of  God,  and  very  earnestly 
implores  the  people  to  seek  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins.  In 
his  proclamation  of  a  fast  day,  August,  1861,  are  these  words: 

"  And,  whereas,  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people,  at  all 
times,  to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  supreme  government  of 
God;  to  bow  in  humble  submission  to  his  chastisements;  to 
confess  and  deplore  their  sins  and  transgressions,  in  the  full 
conviction  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom, 
and  to  pray  with  all  fervency  and  contrition  for  the  pardon  of 
their  past  offenses,  and  for  a  blessing  on  their  present  and 
prospective  action,"  etc. 

Read  also  his  proclamation  enforcing  the  observance  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath  in  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  ask  yourself, 
Could  an  infidel  have  done  this? 

The  President,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  desires 
and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and 
men  in  the  military  and  naval  service.  The  importance  for  man  and 
beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers 
and  sailors,  a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiment  of  a  Christian 
people,  and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor 
in  the  Army  and  Navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  a  strict  necessity. 
The  discipline  and  character  of  the  National  forces  should  not  suffer, 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled,  by  the  profanation  of  the  day 
and  the  name  of  the  Most  High.  At  this  time  of  public  distress,  adopt 
ing  the  words  of  Washington  in  1776,  "  Men  may  find  enough  to  do  in 
the  service  of  God  and  their  country  without  abandoning  themselves 
to  vice  and  immorality."  The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  indicates  the 
spirit  in  which  our  institutions  were  founded  and  should  ever  be  de 
fended  :  "  The  General  hopes  and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will 
endeavor  to  live  and  act  as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier  defending  the 
dearest  rights  and  liberties  of  his  country."  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


APPENDICES  331 

Besides  all  this,  we  find  Mr.  Lincoln  often  using  the  very 
language  of  the  Saviour,  as  not  only  expressing  but  giving  the 
sanction  of  Divine  authority  to  his  own  views  and  opinions. 
What  a  remarkable  instance  of  it  in  the  solemn  words  that 
fell  from  his  lips  in  his  last  inaugural,  as  he  stood  on  the  steps 
of  the  Capitol!  Standing  upon  the  verge  of  his  grave,  as  he 
was  that  day,  and  addressing  his  last  official  words  to  his  coun 
trymen,  his  lips  touched  as  with  the  finger  of  inspiration,  he 
said: 

"  The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  '  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses,  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses 
will  come;  but  woe  unto  the  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh.' 
If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  Slavery  is  one  of  these  offenses 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which, 
having  continued  through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to 
remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible 
war  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall 
we  discern  any  departure  therein  from  those  Divine  attributes 
which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  him? 
Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  the  mighty  scourge 
of  war  may  pass  away.  Yet  if  God  will  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with  another  drawn 
by  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  must 
it  still  be  said, '  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether/  " 

Thus  it  appears,  that  whether  Mr.  Lincoln  was  ever  accus 
tomed  to  blaspheme  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  or  not,  or  whether 
he  was  ever  accustomed  to  deny  His  divinity  or  not,  as  his 
defamers  allege,  he  is  willing,  in  the  last  eventful  days  of  his 
life,  standing  at  the  nation's  Capitol,  in  the  hearing  of  the 
swelling  multitude  that  hangs  upon  his  lips,  to  use  the  sanction 
of  Divine  authority  to  one  of  the  most  remarkable  sentences  of 
his  official  address. 

Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  of  Chicago,  an  intimate  acquaintance 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  who  is  engaged  in  a  review  of  his  work  on 
Mr.  Lincoln's  life,  writes  me  that  "  from  the  time  he  left  Spring 
field,  with  the  touching  request  for  the  prayers  of  his  friends 
and  neighbors,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  his  words  were  the  words 
of  a  Christian,  revering  the  Bible,  and  obeying  its  precepts.  A 


332  APPENDICES 

spirit  of  reverence  and  deep  religious  feeling  pervades  nearly 
all  the  public  utterances  and  state  papers  of  his  later  life." 

The  following  interesting  testimony  from  Rev.  Dr.  Byron 
Sunderland,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Washington 
City,  gives  us  a  little  insight  into  the  philosophy  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
mind  and  religious  sentiments: 

WASHINGTON  CITY,  Nov.  I5th,  1872. 
REV.  JAS.  A.  REED: 

DEAR  BRO. — It  was  in  the  last  days  of  1862,  about  the  time  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  seriously  contemplating  the  issuing  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  that  I,  in  company  with  some  friends  of  the  President, 
called  upon  him.  After  some  conversation,  in  which  he  seemed  disposed 
to  have  his  joke  and  fun,  he  settled  down  to  a  serious  consideration  of 
the  subject  before  his  mind,  and  for  one  half -hour  poured  forth  a  volume 
of  the  deepest  Christian  philosophy  I  ever  heard.  He  began  by  saying — 

"  The  ways  of  God  are  mysterious  and  profound  beyond  all  com 
prehension — 'who  by  searching  can  find  Him  out?'  Now,  judging  after 
the  manner  of  men,  taking  counsel  of  our  sympathies  and  feelings,  if 
it  had  been  left  to  us  to  determine  it,  we  would  have  had  no  war.  And 
going  further  back  to  the  occasion  of  it,  we  would  have  had  no  slavery. 
And  tracing  it  still  further  back,  we  would  have  had  no  evil.  There  is 
the  mystery  of  the  universe  which  no  man  can  solve,  and  it  is  at  that 
point  that  the  human  understanding  utterly  backs  down.  And  then 
there  is  nothing  left  but  for  the  heart  of  man  to  take  up  faith  and  believe 
and  trust  where  it  cannot  reason.  Now,  I  believe  we  are  all  agents 
and  instruments  of  Divine  providence.  On  both  sides  we  are  working 
out  the  will  of  God;  yet  how  strange  the  spectacle!  Here  is  one  half 
the  nation  prostrated  in  prayer  that  God  will  help  them  to  destroy  the 
Union  and  build  up  a  government  upon  the  cornerstone  of  human 
bondage.  And  here  is  the  other  half  equally  earnest  in  their  prayers 
and  efforts  to  defeat  a  purpose  which  they  regard  as  so  repugnant  to 
their  ideas  of  human  nature  and  the  rights  of  society,  as  well  as  liberty 
and  independence.  They  want  slavery ;  we  want  freedom.  They  want  a 
servile  class;  we  want  to  make  equality  practical  as  far  as  possible.  And 
they  are  Christians,  and  we  are  Christians.  They  and  we  are  praying 
and  fighting  for  results  exactly  the  opposite.  What  must  God  think  of 
such  a  posture  of  affairs?  There  is  but  one  solution — self-deception. 
Somewhere  there  is  a  fearful  heresy  in  our  religion,  and  I  cannot  think 
it  lies  in  the  love  of  liberty  and  in  the  aspirations  of  the  human  soul. 

"  What  I  am  to  do  in  the  present  emergency  time  will  determine. 
I  hold  myself  in  my  present  position  and  with  the  authority  vested  in 
me  as  an  instrument  of  Providence.  I  have  my  own  views  and  purposes, 
I  have  my  convictions  of  duty,  and  my  notions  of  what  is  right  to  be 
done.  But  I  am  conscious  every  moment  that  all  I  am  and  all  I  have 
is  subject  to  the  control  of  a  Higher  Power,  and  that  Power  can  use 
me  or  not  use  me  in  any  manner,  and  at  any  time,  as  in  His  wisdom  and 
might  may  be  pleasing  to  Him. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  am  no  fatalist.  I  believe  in  the  supremacy  of  the 
human  conscience,  and  that  men  are  responsible  beings;  that  God  has 
a  right  to  hold  them,  and  will  hold  them,  to  a  strict  personal  account  for 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  But,  sirs,  I  do  not  mean  to  give  you  a 
lecture  upon  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.  These  are  simply 
with  me  the  convictions  and  realities  of  great  and  vital  truths,  the 


APPENDICES  333 

power  and  demonstration  of  which  I  see  now  in  the  light  of  this  our 
national  struggle  as  I  have  never  seen  before.  God  only  knows  the  issue 
of  this  business.  He  has  destroyed  nations  from  the  map  of  history 
for  their  sins.  Nevertheless  my  hopes  prevail  generally  above  my  fears 
for  our  own  Republic.  The  times  are  dark,  the  spirits  of  ruin  are 
abroad  in  all  their  power,  and  the  mercy  of  God  alone  can  save  us." 

So  did  the  President  discourse  until  we  felt  we  were  imposing  on 
his  time,  and  rising  we  took  our  leave  of  him,  confident  that  he  would 
be  true  to  those  convictions  of  right  and  duty  which  were  derived  from 
so  deep  a  Christian  philosophy. 

Yours  truly, 

BYRON  SUNDERLAND. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Miner,  Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Springfield,  who  was  intimately  acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  visited  him  and  his  family  in  Washington  previous  to  his 
death,  has  left  most  interesting  testimony  in  reference  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  religious  sentiments,  confirmatory  of  what  has  been 
given,  and  which  is  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  University 
of  Chicago.  Dr.  Miner  sums  up  his  impressions  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
as  follows :  "  All  that  was  said  during  that  memorable  afternoon 
I  spent  alone  with  that  great  and  good  man  is  engraven  too 
deeply  on  my  memory  ever  to  be  effaced.  I  felt  certain  of  this 
fact,  that  if  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  really  an  experimental  Chris 
tian,  he  was  acting  like  one.  He  was  doing  his  duty  manfully, 
and  looking  to  God  for  help  in  time  of  need;  and,  like  the  im 
mortal  Washington,  he  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and 
it  was  his  custom  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  pray  himself." 
And  here  I  would  relate  an  incident  which  occurred  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1861,  as  told  me  by  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Said  she:  "Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  the  conclusion  of  his  inaugural  address  the  morn 
ing  it  was  delivered.  The  family  being  present,  he  read  it  to 
them.  He  then  said  he  wished  to  be  left  alone  for  a  short  time. 
The  family  retired  to  an  adjoining  room,  but  not  so  far  distant 
but  that  the  voice  of  prayer  could  be  distinctly  heard.  There, 
closeted  with  God  alone,  surrounded  by  the  enemies  who  were 
ready  to  take  his  life,  he  commended  his  country's  cause  and 
all  dear  to  him  to  God's  providential  care,  and  with  a  mind 
calmed  with  communion  with  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  courage 
equal  to  the  danger,  he  came  forth  from  that  retirement  ready 
for  duty." 

With  such  testimony,  gathered  from  gentlemen  of  the  highest 
standing,  and  much  more  that  I  could  add  to  confirm  it,  I  leave 
the  later  life  and  religious  sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to 


334  APPENDICES 

the  dispassionate  and  charitable  judgment  of  a  grateful  people. 
While  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  spared  to 
indicate  his  religious  sentiments  by  a  profession  of  his  faith 
in  accordance  with  the  institutions  of  the  Christian  religion,  yet 
it  is  very  clear  that  he  had  this  step  in  view,  and  was  seriously 
contemplating  it,  as  a  sense  of  its  fitness  and  an  apprehension 
of  his  duty  grew  upon  him.  He  did  not  ignore  a  relation  to 
the  Christian  church  as  an  obsolete  duty  and  an  unimportant 
matter.  How  often  do  we  hear  him  thanking  God  for  the 
churches!  And  he  was  fast  bringing  his  life  into  conformity 
to  the  Christian  standard.  The  coarse  story-telling  of  his  early 
days  was  less  indulged  in  in  his  later  life.  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 
and  Mr.  Carpenter,  as  well  as  Mr.  Lincoln's  physician  at  Wash 
ington,  Dr.  Stone,  all  testify  that  "  while  his  stories  and  anecdotes 
were  racy,  witty,  and  pointed  beyond  all  comparison,"  yet  they 
"  never  heard  one  of  a  character  needing  palliation  or  excuse." 
His  physician,  Dr.  Stone,  testifies  that  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the 
purest-hearted  man  he  ever  came  in  contact  with." 

His  disposition  to  attend  the  theater  in  later  life  (if  to  anyone 
it  seems  to  need  apology)  was  not  so  much  a  fondness  for  the 
playhouse  as  a  relief  from  his  mental  anxiety,  and  an  escape  from 
the  incessant  pressure  of  visitors  at  the  White  House.  "  It  is 
a  well-known  fact,"  says  Dr.  Miner,  "  that  he  would  not  have 
been  at  the  theater  on  that  fatal  night,  but  to  escape  the  mul 
titude  who  were  that  evening  pressing  into  the  White  House  to 
shake  hands  with  him.  It  has  been  said  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  urged 
her  husband  to  go  to  the  theater  against  his  will.  This  is  not 
true.  On  the  contrary,  she  tried  to  persuade  him  not  to  go, 
but  he  insisted.  He  said,  '  I  must  have  a  little  rest.  A  large 
and  overjoyed,  excited  people  will  visit  me  tonight.  My  arms 
are  lame  by  shaking  hands  with  the  multitude,  and  the  people 
will  pull  me  to  pieces/  He  went  to  the  theater,  not  because 
he  was  interested  in  the  play,  but  because  he  was  care-worn  and 
needed  quiet  and  repose.  Mrs.  Lincoln  informed  me  that  he 
seemed  to  take  no  notice  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  theater 
from  the  time  he  entered  it  till  the  discharge  of  the  fatal  pistol. 
She  said  that  the  last  day  he  lived  was  the  happiest  of  his  life. 
The  very  last  moments  of  his  conscious  life  were  spent  in  con 
versation  with  her  about  his  future  plans,  and  what  he  wanted 
to  do  when  his  term  of  office  expired.  He  said  he  wanted  to 
visit  the  Holy  Land  and  see  the  places  hallowed  by  the  foot- 


APPENDICES  335 

prints  of  the  Saviour.  He  was  saying  there  was  no  city  he  so 
much  desired  to  see  as  Jerusalem;  and  w.th  that  word  half 
Token  on  his  tongue,  the  bullet  of  the  assassin  entered  h,s  brain, 
and  the  soul  of  the  great  and  good  President  was  earned  by 
angels  to  the  New  Jerusalem  above." 


APPENDIX  V 

TWO  HERNDON  LETTERS  CONCERNING  LINCOLN'S 

RELIGION 

BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  LINCOLN'S   CHARACTER 

SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  Sept.  10,  1887. 
J.  E.  REMSBURG,  Oak  Mills,  Kansas. 

FRIEND  REMSBURG:  Today  I  send  you  Speed's  lecture  on 
"  Lincoln,"  which  you  can  keep  till  I  send  for  it — and  this'  will 
probably  be  never.  It  is  a  very  poor  lecture  if  the  lecture  con 
tains  his  knowledge  of  Lincoln,  and,  I  guess  it  does.  It  shows  no 
insight  into  Lincoln  at  all,  though  it  is  well  enough  written. 
It  is  said  that  Speed  had  a  world  of  influence  over  Lincoln. 
This  may  be  so,  and  yet  I  never  saw  it.  It  is  said  by  Nicolay 
and  Hay  that  Lincoln  poured  out  his  soul  to  Speed.  Bah! 
Nonsense!  Probably,  except  in  his  love  scrapes,  Lincoln  never 
poured  out  his  soul  to  any  mortal  creature  at  any  time  and  on 
no  subject.  He  was  the  most  secretive,  reticent,  shut-mouthed 
man  that  ever  existed. 

You  had  to  guess  at  the  man  after  years  of  acquaintance 
and  then  you  must  look  long  and  keenly  before  you  guessed,  or 
you  would  make  an  ass  of  yourself. 

You  had  to  take  some  leading — great  leading  and  well-estab 
lished — fact  of  Lincoln's  nature  and  then  follow  it  by  accurate 
and  close  analysis  wherever  it  went. 

This  process  would  lead  you  correctly  if  you  knew  human 
nature  and  its  laws.  Lincoln  was  a  mystery  to  the  world; 
he  loved  principle,  but  moved  ever  just  to  suit  his  own  ends; 
he  was  a  trimmer  among  men,  though  firm  on  laws  and  great 
principles;  he  did  not  care  for  men;  they  were  his  tools  and 
instruments ;  he  was  a  cool  man — an  unsocial  one — an  abstracted 
one,  having  the  very  quintessence  of  the  profoundest  policies. 
Lincoln's  heart  was  tender,  full  of  mercy,  if  in  his  presence  some 
imaginative  man  presented  the  subject  to  him.  "  Out  of  sight, 
out  of  mind  "  may  truthfully  be  said  of  Lincoln.  If  I  am  correct, 

336 


APPENDICES  337 

what  do  you  think  of  the  stories  afloat  about  what  Lincoln  said 
in  relation  to  his  religion,  especially  said  to  strangers?  I  send 
you  two  "  Truth-Seekers  "  which  you  will  please  read  where  I 
speak  of  Lincoln  in  three  letters,  pages  marked  at  the  top. 
You  will  learn  something  of  Lincoln's  nature  in  those  three  let 
ters  of  mine — two  of  them  on  Lincoln's  religion,  and  one  to  a 
minister.  Please  read  hhem.  There  are  some  quotations  in  these 
letters  which  I  have  never  had  time  to  send  you  as  I  recollect 
it.  They  are  good  things — one  on  Laws  of  Human  Nature 
and  one  on  the  Pride-Haughtiness  of  Christians.  Lincoln  deliv 
ered  a  lecture  in  which  these  quotations  are  to  be  found.  I  heard 
him  deliver  it. 

W.  H.  HERNDON. 

p.  s. — Mr.  Speed  was  my  boss  for  three  or  four  years  and 
Lincoln,  Speed,  Hurst,  and  I  slept  in  the  same  room  for  a  year 
or  so.  I  was  clerk  for  Speed.  Speed  could  make  Lincoln  do 
much  about  simple  measures,  policies,  not  involving  any  principle. 
Beyond  this  power  Speed  did  not  have  much  influence  over 
Lincoln  nor  did  anyone  else. 

A  CARD  AND  A  CORRECTION 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  short  words  to  the  public  and  private 
ear.  About  the  year  1870  I  wrote  a  letter  to  F.  E.  Abbott, 
then  of  Ohio,  touching  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion.  In  that  letter 
I  stated  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  sometimes  bordering 
oil  atheism,  and  I  now  repeat  the  same.  In  the  year  1873  the 
Right  Rev.  James  A.  Reed,  pastor  and  liar  of  this  city,  gave 
a  lecture  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion,  in  which  he  tried  to  answer 
some  things  which  I  never  asserted,  except  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
infidelity,  which  I  did  assert  and  now  and  here  affirm.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  an  infidel  of  the  radical  type;  he  never  mentioned 
the  name  of  Jesus  except  to  scorn  and  detest  the  idea  of  mirac 
ulous  conception.  This  lecture  of  the  withered  minister  will 
be  found  in  Holland's  Review  [Scribner's  Monthly] .  I  answered 
this  lecture  in  1874,  I  think,  in  this  city  to  a  large  and  intelligent 
audience — had  it  printed  and  sent  a  copy  to  Holland,  requesting, 
in  polite  language,  that  he  insert  it  in  his  Review  as  an  answer 
to  the  Reed  lecture.  The  request  was  denied  me,  as  a  matter 
of  course.  He  could  help  to  libel  a  man  with  Christian  courage, 
and  with  Christian  cowardice  refuse  to  unlibel  him. 


338  APPENDICES 

Soon  thereafter,  say  from  1874  to  1882,  I  saw  floating  around 
in  the  newspaper  literature,  such  charges  as  "  Herndon  is  in  a 
lunatic  asylum,  well  chained,"  "  Herndon  is  a  pauper,"  "  Hern 
don  is  a  drunkard,"  "  Herndon  is  a  vile  infidel  and  a  knave, 
a  liar  and  a  drunkard,"  and  the  like.  I  have  contradicted  all 
these  things  under  my  own  hand,  often,  except  as  to  my  so-called 
infidelity,  liberalism,  free  religious  opinions,  or  what-not.  In  the 
month  of  October,  1882,  I  saw  in  and  clipped  out  of  the  Cherry- 
vale  Globe-News  of  September,  1882,  a  paper  published  in  the 
State  of  Kansas,  the  following  rich  and  racy  article;  it  is  as 
follows : 

"Lincoln's  Old  Law  Partner  a  Pauper 

"Bill  Herndon  is  a  pauper  in  Sprinfield,  111.  He  was  once  worth 
considerable  property.  His  mind  was  the  most  argumentative  of  any 
of  the  old  lawyers  in  the  State,  and  his  memory  was  extraordinary. 
For  several  years  before  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency, 
Herndon  was  in  some  respects  the  most  active  member  of  the  firm, 
preparing  the  greatest  number  of  cases  for  trial  and  making  elaborate 
arguments  in  their  behalf.  It  is  said  that  he  worked  hard  with  Lincoln 
in  preparing  the  memorable  speeches  by  the  man  who  afterward  became 
President,  during  the  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in  1858,  and 
in  constructing  the  Cooper  Union  address  delivered  by  Lincoln  a  short 
time  before  the  war.  Herndon,  with  all  his  attainments,  was  a  man  who 
now  and  then  went  on  a  spree,  and  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  him 
to  leave  an  important  lawsuit  and  spend  several  days  in  drinking  and 
carousing.  This  habit  became  worse  after  Lincoln's  death,  and  like  poor 
Dick  Yates,  Herndon  went  down  step  by  step  till  his  old  friends  and 
associates  point  to  him  as  a  common  drunkard." 

There  are  three  distinct  charges  in  the  above  article.  First, 
that  I  am  a  pauper.  Second,  that  I  am  a  common  drunkard, 
and  third,  that  I  was  a  traitor  or  false  to  my  clients.  Let  me 
answer  these  charges  in  their  order.  First,  I  am  not  a  pauper. 
Never  have  been  and  expect  never  to  be.  I  am  working  on 
my  farm,  making  my  own  living  with  my  own  muscle  and  brain, 
a  place  and  a  calling  that  even  Christianity  with  its  persecution 
and  malignity  can  never  reach  me  to  do  much  harm.  I  had, 
it  is  true,  once  a  considerable  property,  but  lost  much  of  it 
in  the  crash  and  consequent  crisis  of  1873,  caused  in  part  by 
the  contraction  of  the  currency,  in  part  by  the  decline  in  the 
demand  for  the  agricultural  products  which  I  raise  for  sale,  in 
part  by  the  inability  by  the  people  to  buy,  etc.,  etc.,  and  for  no 
other  reasons. 

Second,  I  never  was  a  common  drunkard,  as  I  look  at  it, 


APPENDICES  339 

and  am  not  now.  I  am  and  have  been  for  years  an  ardent  and 
enthusiastic  temperance  man,  though  opposed  to  prohibition  by 
law,  by  any  force  or  other  choker.  The  time  has  not  come 
for  this.  It  is  a  fact  that  I  once,  years  ago,  went  on  a  spree; 
and  this  I  now  deeply  regret.  It  however  is  in  the  past,  and 
let  a  good  life  in  the  future  bury  the  past.  I  have  not  fallen, 
I  have  risen,  and  all  good  men  and  women  will  applaud  the 
deed,  always  excepting  a  small,  little,  bitter  Christian  like  the 
Right  Rev.  pastor  and  liar  of  this  city,  to  whom  I  can  trace 
some  of  the  above  charges.  In  my  case  this  minister  was  an 
eager,  itching  libeler,  and  what  he  said  of  me  is  false — nay,  a 
willful  lie. 

Third,  I  never  was  a  traitor  or  untrue  to  my  clients  or 
their  interests.  I  never  left  them  during  the  progress  of  a  trial 
or  at  other  times  for  the  cause  alleged,  drunkenness.  I  may 
have  crept — slid — out  of  a  case  during  the  trial  because  I  had 
no  faith  in  it,  leaving  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  had  faith  in  it,  to  run 
it  through.  My  want  of  faith  in  a  case  would  have  been  dis 
covered  by  the  jury  and  that  discovery  would  have  damaged 
my  client  and  to  save  my  client  I  dodged.  This  is  all  there  is 
on  it,  and  let  men  make  the  most  of  it. 

Now,  let  me  ask  a  question.  Why  is  all  this  libeling  of  me? 
I  am  a  mere  private  citizen,  hold  no  office,  do  not  beg  the  people 
to  give  me  one  often.  My  religious  ideas,  views,  and  philosophy 
are  today,  here,  unpopular.  But  wait,  I  will  not  deny  my  ideas, 
views,  or  philosophy  for  office  or  station  or  the  applause  of 
the  unthinking  multitude.  I  can,  however,  answer  the  above 
question.  It,  the  libeling,  is  done  because  I  did  assert  and  affirm 
by  oral  language  and  by  print  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  infidel, 
sometimes  bordering  on  atheism,  and  yet  he  was  among  the  best, 
greatest,  and  noblest  of  mankind;  he  was  a  grand  man.  Why 
do  not  the  Christians  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  evangelical 
Christian  and  thus  prove  me  a  liar?  One  of  my  friends,  for 
whom  I  have  great  respect,  says,  that  "  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a 
rational  Christian  because  he  believed  in  morality."  Why  not 
say  Lincoln  was  rational  Buddhist,  as  Buddhism  teaches  moral 
ity?  Why  not  say  Lincoln  was  rational  Mohammedan?  By 
the  way,  let  me  say  here,  that  I  have  a  profound  respect  for  an 
earnest,  manly,  and  sincere  Christian  or  an  Atheist,  a  profound 
respect  for  an  earnest,  manly,  and  sincere  Infidel  or  theist  or 
any  other  religion,  or  the  men  who  hold  it,  when  that  belief  is 


340  APPENDICES 

woven  into  a  great  manly  character  to  beautify  and  greaten  the 
world. 

These  charges,  and  I  do  not  know  how  many  more,  nor  of 
what  kind,  have  been  scattered  broadcast  all  over  the  land,  and 
have  gone  into  every  house,  have  been  read  at  every  fireside  till 
the  good  people  believe  them,  believe  that  I  am  nearly  as  mean 
as  a  little  Christian,  and  all  because  I  told  the  truth  and  stand 
firm  in  my  conviction.  Respectfully, 

W.  H.  HERNDON. 

November  9,  1882. 
[Privatery  printed  by  H.  E.  Barker,  Springfield,  1917,  edition 

limited  to  75  copies.] 


APPENDIX  VI 

THE  IRWIN  ARTICLE  WITH  LETTERS  CONCERNING 
LINCOLN'S  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF 

Another  Valuable  Contribution  to  the  History  of  the  Martyr 
President. — Was  Abraham  Lincoln  an  Infidel? — A  Pains 
taking  Examination  of  the  Case  by  An  Old  Acquaintance. 
— Important  Testimony  of  Contemporaneous  Witnesses. — 
History  of  the  Famous  Manuscript  of  1833. — Mentor  Graham 
Says  It  Was  a  Defence  of  Christianity. — The  Burned  Manu 
script  Quite  a  Different  Affair. — The  Charge  of  Infidelity  in 
1848,  Said  to  Have  Been  Disproved  at  the  Time. — Letter  of 
Hon.  Wm.  Reid,  U.  S.  Consul  at  Dundee,  Scotland. 

By  B.  F.  IRWIN 

PLEASANT  PLAINS,  ILL.,  April  20,  1874. 
EDITOR  STATE  JOURNAL:  For  some  time,  I  believe,  in  1870 
there  has  been  a  constant  and  continued  effort  upon  the  part 
of  the  Hon.  W.  H.  Herndon,  Springfield,  111.,  to  convince  and 
prove  to  the  world  that  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  and  died  an  in 
fidel.  He  has  succeded,  as  I  suppose,  in  proving  that  proposi 
tion  to  his  own  entire  satisfaction  and  probably  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  some  others.  The  last  effort  I  have  noticed  upon  the 
subject  was  Herndon's  reply  to  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed,  in  a  lecture 
delivered  in  the  court  house  in  Springfield,  some  months  ago. 
A  few  days  after  that  lecture  was  delivered,  I  was  urgently 
requested  by  a  prominent  minister  of  the  gospel  and  friend  of 
Lincoln's  (and  also  a  lady  friend  now  residing  in  Kansas)  to 
review  that  speech.  I  promised  each  of  those  persons  I  would 
do  so  at  the  proper  time.  That  time  has  now  arrived,  and  I 
propose  noticing  a  few  points  in  the  address  of  Mr.  Herndon, 

"  THE    RELIGION    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  " 

also  a  point  or  two  in  his  Abbott  letter  and  I  think  I  will  be 
able  to  show  that  Mr.  Herndon,  himself,  never  knew  or  under- 

341 


342  APPENDICES 

stood    really    what   the    faith    of    Lincoln    was    or    what    the 

RELIGIOUS   BELIEF   OF   LINCOLN 

was.  I  wish  it  now  and  here  understood  that  Mr.  Herndon's 
candor  or  veracity  I  do  not  call  in  question.  Nor  will  I  de 
signedly  say  anything  to  offend  him.  He  and  I  have  been  for 
twenty-five  years  good  personal  friends,  and  I  hope  that  friend 
ship  may  continue.  Mr.  Herndon  has  a  right  to  prove  Mr. 
Lincoln  an  infidel  if  he  can.  I  claim  the  same  right  to  prove  that 

LINCOLN   WAS   NOT  AN   INFIDEL 

if  I  can.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  as  Herndon  says,  it 
is  proper  for  the  world  to  know  it.  If  he  was  not  an  infidel  the 
charge  is  wrong  and  a  slander,  for  infidelity  in  the  nineteenth 
century  is  no  honor  to  any  man,  dead  or  alive. 

Mr.  Herndon,  in  his  speech,  uses  this  language :  "  One  side 
of  this  question  can  be  proved.  It  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that 
Lincoln  once  was  an  infidel ;  that  he  wrote  a  small  book,  or  essay, 
or  pamphlet  against  Christianity,  and  that  he  (Lincoln)  continued 
an  unbeliever  until  late  in  life."  Herndon  further  says :  "  It  is  a 
rule  of  law,  as  well  as  a  rule  of  common  sense,  that  when  a 
certain  state  or  condition  of  affairs  is  once  proved  to  exist,  the 
presumption  is,  that  it  still  exists  until  the  contrary  is  proved." 
Now  I  stand  by  that  proposition  as  a  true  one.  Will  Mr.  Hern 
don  do  so?  But 

HE   IS   WOEFULLY    MISTAKEN 

in  his  statement  that  "  all  admit  that  Lincoln  was  once  an  in 
fidel."  I  have  never  yet  heard  one  single  man  express  the 
belief  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  either  early  or  late  in  life, 
while  I  am  confident  I  have  heard  one  hundred  different  persons 
express  astonishment  at  Mr.  Herndon  writing  and  publishing 
Lincoln  to  the  world  an  infidel.  Mr.  Herndon,  it  is  true,  did 
have  opportunities  and  advantages  over  others  in  knowing  Mr. 
Lincoln's  religious  opinions.  But  other  men  had  some  oppor 
tunities  as  well  as  Mr.  Herndon,  and  to  them  I  shall  have  to 
appeal,  for  I  do  not  claim  to  personally  know  anything  about 
Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  faith.  Though  personally  acquainted 
with  Lincoln  for  twenty-five  years,  and  often  in  his  office,  I 


APPENDICES  343 

never  heard  him  say  a  word  on  the  subject  of  Christianity  or 
religious  belief.  Hence,  my  opinion  of  Lincoln's  faith  or  belief 
is  based  on  the  testimony  of  those  who  do  know,  who  had  it 

FROM   LINCOLN   HIMSELF  J 

and  I  believe  them,  for  the  weight  of  testimony  is  certainly 
against  Mr.  Herndon.  The  Scriptures  of  Truth  lay  it  down  as  a 
Divine  rule,  that  the  evidence  of  two  or  three  witnesses  is  better 
than  one.  Common  law  lays  down  the  same  rule,  borrowed 
from  Divine  authority,  and  our  courts  are  governed  by  it  in  their 
decisions. 

Mr.  Herndon,  in  his 

REPLY  TO  MR.  REED, 

says,  "  He  is  talking  to  establish  the  truth  of  a  controversy 
between  those  who  hold  that  Lincoln  was  a  disbeliever,  and 
those  who  hold  that  he  died  a  Christian  (a  believer  in  Christ)" 
and  then  says:  "  If  I  fail  to  establish  my  point  it  will  be  because 
of  the  manner  and  method  of  presenting  the  facts."  I  have  read 
that  lecture  carefully  over,  and  I  fail  to  find  any  proof  of  Hern- 
don's  proposition  that  Lincoln  ever  was  an  infidel  or  an  un 
believer.  The  nearest  I  see  to  it,  is  the 

STATEMENT   OF    J.    H.    MATHENY 

He  uses  this  language,  substantially:  "Mr.  Lincoln's  earlier 
life  is  his  whole  life  and  history  in  Illinois  up  to  the  time  he 
left  for  Washington  City.  He  (Lincoln)  was,  as  I  understand 
it,  a  confirmed  infidel."  Now,  Matheny  fails  to  tell  us  how 
he  got  that  understanding.  Did  he  get  it  from  Lincoln?  He 
don't  say  so,  and  the  reason  he  don't  say  so  doubtless  is,  he 
got  it  from  some  other  source — probably  from  Herndon.  But 
clearly,  to  be  of  any  weight  as  evidence,  he  must  have  that  un 
derstanding  from  Mr.  Lincoln  himself.  Mr.  Matheny  may  have 
some  time  in  life  heard  Lincoln  use  some  of  the 

ARGUMENTS   OF   TOM    PAINE, 

or  advance  infidel  ideas,  and  still  not  be  an  infidel.  I  have  heard 
an  official  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  this  town  advance 
as  strong  infidel  sentiments  as  Tom  Paine  ever  did,  and  you 


344  APPENDICES 

would  insult  the  man  to  say  he  was  an  infidel.  So  any  Christian 
may  use  the  language  or  advance  some  of  the  sentiments  of  Tom 
Paine  and  be  far  from  an  infidel.  Lincoln  may  have  done  all 
that,  and  still  not  be  an  infidel.  I  do  not  believe  Mr.  Lincoln 
ever  was  an  infidel,  and  I  can  truly  state  and  say  just  what 
Matheny  said.  I  understood  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  but  I  never 
believed  the  statement  true.  Matheny  understood  it:  in  other 
words,  he  had  heard  it  but  knew  nothing  about  the  facts  in  the 
case.  I  have  seen  Mr.  Matheny  since,  and  he  states  that  he 

, 

NEVER    HAD   IT    FROM    LINCOLN 

that  he  was  an  infidel,  and  he  never  believed  it. 

If  Mr.  Herndon  is  in  possession  of  the  evidence,  in  writing 
or  otherwise,  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  an  infidel,  either  earlier 
or  later  in  life,  he  ought  to  bring  forward  the  proof  to  sustain 
his  proposition :  for  he  has  long  since  learned  that  the  statement 
alone  fails  to  satisfy  the  public  mind  that  Lincoln  ever  was  an 
infidel.  Mr.  Herndon  in  his 

ABBOTT  LETTER 

truly  says  the  charge  of  infidelity  was  made  against  Mr.  Lincoln 
when  he  was  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1848 ;  and  then  adds : 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  deny  the  charge,  because  it  was  true." 
The  charge  of  infidelity  was  made  against  Lincoln  at  that  time, 
and  I  suppose  Lincoln  made  no  public  denial  of  the  charge,  for 
the  reason  that  the  canvass  was  being  made  on  political  grounds, 
and  not  religious  faith  or  belief.  This  much  was  said  at  the 
time,  as  I  well  remember  to  be  the  facts  in  the  case. 

About  the  time  of  building  the  flatboat  on  the  Sangamon 
River  in  1830,  when  Lincoln  was  quite  a  young  man,  a 

RELIGIOUS    CONTROVERSY 

was  the  topic  in  which  Lincoln  took  a  part;  and  in  the  argu 
ment  Lincoln  used  the  language  that,  according  to  the  history 
of  the  case,  in  the  New  Testament,  Christ  was  a  bastard  and 
his  mother  a  base  woman.  This  he  may  have  used  at  the  time, 
as  young  men  sometimes  do  use  vain  language,  and  seventeen 
years  afterward,  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  Congress  against 


APPENDICES  345 


PETER  CARTWRIGHT 

a  Methodist  preacher,  that  vain  remark  was  remembered,  and 
Tom  Paine  having  used  similar  language,  Lincoln  was  published 
in  some  of  the  papers  as  an  infidel.  The  above  was  the  ex 
planation  published  at  the  time,  and  the  charge  of  infidelity 
did  no  harm.  Had  Lincoln  been  known  as  an  infidel,  or  believed 
to  be  one  at  that  time,  I  am  certain  he  would  have  been  beaten 
badly  by  Cartwright  in  the  canvass. 

Again,  Mr.  Herndon,  in  his  Abbott  letter  (I  believe  it  is), 
says :  "  It  is  not  to  be  found  in  print  that  Lincoln  ever  used  the 
word  Christ."  In  fact,  Herndon  says,  "  he  never  did  use  it,  only 
to  deny  Christ  as  the  son  of  God."  Now  that  statement  may 
be  true,  that  he  did  not  use  the  term  Christ :  but  if  Mr.  Herndon 
will  examine  the  speeches  of  the  public  men  of  this  nation,  I 
believe  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  Mr.  Lincoln  used  and 

QUOTED    MORE   SCRIPTURE 

than  any  man  in  the  nation ;  and  that  he  quoted  the  parables  and 
language  of  Christ  oftener  than  any  public  man  living.  Not  only 
did  Lincoln  quote  Scripture,  but  he  used  it  as  being  of  Divine 
authority,  and  applicable  to  the  affairs  of  earth.  Mr.  Herndon 
gives  us  to  understand  that  Lincoln  did  not  believe  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures  to  be  any  more  inspired  than  Homer's 
songs,  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost,"  or  Shakspeare.  If  Herndon 
is  correct,  it  seems  strange  Lincoln  made  no  use  of  those  books. 
On  the  1 6th  of  January,  1858,*  as  a  foundation  for  an  argument, 
he  used  the  language  of  Christ 

"A    HOUSE    DIVIDED    AGAINST    ITSELF    CANNOT    STAND," 

in  reply  to  Douglas.  In  the  same  campaign  he  four  times  used 
the  parables  of  Christ ;  in  his  second  inaugural  address — "  woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  its  offenses  " — Christ's  language,  again. 
But  I  need  not  multiply  quotations.  His  speeches,  proclama 
tions,  and  messages  are  so  full  of  quotations  of  scripture,  always 
the  language  of  Christ  himself,  that  if  an  angel  of  light  should 
proclaim  it  trumpet-tongued  from  the  skies,  that  Lincoln  was 

1  This  is  an  error  doubtless  made  by  Mr.  Irwin  in  copying.  It  should 
be  June  16,  1858,  instead  of  January.  I  have  printed  it  as  it  stands,  but 
the  date  should  be  corrected. 


346  APPENDICES 

an  unbeliever  in  Christ,  I  could  not  believe  it.  He  could  not 
have  been  an  infidel  without  being  a  base  hypocrite;  and  I  don't 
believe  a  more  honest  man  lived  on  earth. 

THE   EVIDENCE 

Now  I  will  take  up  some  evidence  on  the  question  being 
discussed.  Mr.  Herndon  has  said  that,  in  Lincoln's  early  life, 
he  wrote 

A   PAMPHLET 

book,  or  manuscript  against  Christianity.  I  propose  to  show  that 
the  manuscript  written  by  Lincoln  was 

IN  FAVOR  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

To  do  so,  I  will  offer  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Graham,  who  knew 
Lincoln  when  he  was  a  boy  in  Kentucky,  with  whom  Lincoln 
boarded  some  two  years;  and  if  any  man  on  earth  ought  to 
know  Lincoln's  religious  faith  or  belief,  that  man  is  Mentor 
Graham,  who  was  intimate  with  Lincoln  from  the  time  he  came 
to  Illinois  to  the  time  he  left  for  Washington  City.  I  will  give 
the  letter  in  full. 

STATEMENT  OF   MR.  GRAHAM 

PETERSBURG,  ILL.,  March  17,  1874. 
B.  F.  IRWIN  : 

SIR — In  reply  to  your  inquiries,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  living 
at  my  house  in  New  Salem,  going  to  school,  studying  English 
grammar  and  surveying,  in  the  year  1833.  One  morning  he  said 
to  me,  "  Graham,  what  do  you  think  about  the  anger  of  the 
Lord?"  I  replied,  "I  believe  the  Lord  never  was  angry  or 
mad  and  never  would  be;  that  His  loving  kindness  endurest 
forever ;  that  He  never  changes."  Said  Lincoln,  "  I  have  a  little 
manuscript  written,  which  I  will  show  you " ;  and  stated  he 
thought  of  having  it  published.  Offering  it  to  me,  he  said  he 
had  never  showed  it  to  anyone,  and  still  thought  of  having  it 
published.  The  size  of  the  manuscript  was  about  one-half 
quire  of  foolscap,  written  in  a  very  plain  hand,  on  the  subject 
of  Christianity  and  a  defense  of  universal  salvation.  The  com 
mencement  of  it  was  something  respecting  the  God  of  the  uni- 


APPENDICES  347 

verse  never  being  excited,  mad,  or  angry.  I  had  the  manuscript 
in  my  possession  some  week  or  ten  days.  I  have  read  many  books 
on  the  subject  of  theology  and  I  don't  think  in  point  of  per 
spicuity  and  plainness  of  reasoning,  I  ever  read  one  to  surpass 
it.  I  remember  well  his  argument.  He  took  the  passage,  "As 
in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,"  and 
followed  up  with  the  proposition  that  whatever  the  breach  or 
injury  of  Adam's  transgressions  to  the  human  race  was,  which 
no  doubt  was  very  great,  was  made  just  and  right  by  the  atone 
ment  of  Christ. 

As  to  Major  Hill  burning  the  manuscript,  I  don't  believe  he 
did,  nor  do  I  think  he  would  have  done  such  a  thing.  About 
the  burning  of  a  paper  by  Hill,  I  have  some  recollection  of  his 
snatching  a  letter  from  Lincoln  and  putting  it  into  the  fire.  It 
was  a  letter  written  by  Hill  to  McNamur.  His  real  name  was 
McNeal.  Some  of  the  school  children  had  picked  up  the  letter 
and  handed  it  to  Lincoln.  Hill  and  Lincoln  were  talking  about 
it,  when  Hill  snatched  the  letter  from  Lincoln  and  put  it  into 
the  fire.  The  letter  was  respecting  a  young  lady,  Miss  Ann 
Rutledge,  for  whom  all  three  of  these  gentlemen  seemed  to 
have  respect.  Yours  truly, 

MENTOR  GRAHAM. 

Now  the  next  point  I  wish  to  notice  is  Mr.  Herndon's  state 
ment,  in  his  Abbott  letter,  that  Lincoln,  in  1846,  was  charged 
with  being  an  infidel.  Herndon  says  he  [Lincoln]  did  not  deny 
the  charge,  because  it  was  true.  As  I  have  before  stated,  I  admit 
the  charge  was  made,  and  I  think  at  the  time  there  was  no  public 
denial  by  Lincoln,  for  the  reason  that  the  canvass  was  made 
on  political  grounds,  and  not  religious  faith  or  belief.  Never 
theless,  the  charge  was  denied,  as  the  following  letter  will  show. 

STATEMENT    OF    THOMAS    MOSTILLER 

PLEASANT  PLAINS,  ILL.,  April  28,  1874. 
B.  F.  IRWIN  : 

SIR — In  regard  to  your  inquiry,  just  received,  of  what  I 
heard  Lincoln  say  about  a  charge  of  infidelity  made  against 
him  when  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1847,  °r  '4&>  it  was  this. 
I  was  present  and  heard  Josiah  Grady  ask  Lincoln  a  question  or 
two  regarding  a  charge  made  against  Lincoln  of  being  an  infidel, 
and  Lincoln  unqualifiedly  denied  the  charge  of  infidelity,  and 


348  APPENDICES 

said,  in  addition,  his  parents  were  Baptists,  and  brought  him 
up  in  the  belief  of  the  Christian  religion;  and  he  believed  in 
the  Christian  religion  as  much  as  anyone,  but  was  sorry  to  say 
he  had  or  made  no  pretensions  to  religion  himself.  I  can't  give 
his  exact  words,  but  would  make  oath  anywhere  that  he  posi 
tively  denied  the  charge  made  against  him  of  infidelity.  That 
was  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  of  the  charge  of  infidelity  against 
Lincoln. 

Grady  did  not  say  that  he  would  not  vote  for  Lincoln  if  he 
was  an  infidel;  but  my  understanding  from  Grady  was,  that  he 
would  not  vote  for  Lincoln  if  he  was  an  infidel,  and  Grady  did, 
as  I  suppose,  vote  for  him.  I  understood  him  that  he  should. 

Respectfully, 

THOMAS  MOSTILLER. 

MENARD  COUNTY,  ILL. 

The  next  evidence  I  shall  offer  is  that  of  Isaac  Cogdal,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Lincoln's  from  the  time  Lincoln  came  to 
Salem,  Menard  County,  to  the  time  he  left  for  Washington 
City,  and  I  will  let  Cogdal  speak  for  himself. 

STATEMENT  OF  ISAAC  COGDAL 

April  10,  1874. 

B.  F.  IRWIN  :  Yours  received  making  inquiries  about  what  I 
heard  Lincoln  say  about  his  religious  belief,  is  this,  as  near  as 
I  can  tell  it  and  recollect.  I  think  it  was  in  1859,  I  was  in 
Lincoln's  office  in  Springfield,  and  I  had  a  curiosity  to  know  his 
opinions  or  belief  religiously;  and  I  called  on  him  for  his  faith 
in  the  presence  of  W.  H.  Herndon.  At  least  Herndon  was  in 
the  office  at  the  time.  Lincoln  expressed  himself  in  about  these 
words:  He  did  not  nor  could  not  believe  in  the  endless  punish 
ment  of  any  one  of  the  human  race.  He  understood  punishment 
for  sin  to  be  a  Bible  doctrine ;  that  the  punishment  was  parental 
in  its  object,  aim,  and  design,  and  intended  for  the  good  of  the 
offender;  hence  it  must  cease  when  justice  is  satisfied.  He  added 
that  all  that  was  lost  by  the  transgression  of  Adam  was  made 
good  by  the  atonement:  all  that  was  lost  by  the  fall  was  made 
good  by  the  sacrifice,  and  he  added  this  remark,  that  punishment 
being  a  "  provision  of  the  gospel  system,  he  was  not  sure  but 
the  world  would  be  better  off  if  a  little  more  punishment  was 
preached  by  our  ministers,  and  not  so  much  pardon  of  sin."  I 


APPENDICES  349 

then,  in  reply,  told  Mr.  Lincoln  he  was  a  sound  Universalist,  and 
would  advise  him  to  say  but  little  about  his  belief,  as  it  was 
an  unpopular  doctrine,  though  I  fully  agreed  with  him  in  senti 
ment.  Lincoln  replied  that  he  never  took  any  part  in  the  argu 
ment  or  discussion  of  theological  questions.  Much  more  was 
said,  but  the  above  are  the  ideas  as  advanced  by  Lincoln  there. 

Respectfully  yours, 

ISAAC  COGDAL. 

The  next  witness  I  shall  offer  on  the  subject  is  Jonathan 
Harnett,  of  Pleasant  Plains.  Mr.  Harnett  is  here.  I  shall  now 
furnish  a  statement  over  his  signature,  as  he  is  present  and 
dictates  as  I  write. 

DICTATED    STATEMENT    OF    JONATHAN    HARNETT 

Mr.  Harnett  says,  that  in  1858,  a  short  time  after  he  came 
to  Illinois,  he  had  a  curiosity  to  see  Lincoln  and  went  into  his 
office.  There  were  several  others  in  that  he  did  not  know; 
that  religious  faith  seemed  to  be  the  subject  of  conversation. 
After  some  time  was  spent  in  the  controversy,  it  seemed  to  be 
Lincoln's  time,  and  in  a  few  words  he  heard  Lincoln  condense 
into  a  small  space  greater  thoughts  and  larger  ideas,  and  sounder 
logic,  than  he  ever  heard  brought  into  so  small  space.  Lincoln, 
he  says,  covered  more  ground  in  a  few  words  than  he  could 
in  a  week,  and  closed  up  with  the  restitution  of  all  things  to 
God,  as  the  doctrine  taught  in  the  scriptures,  and  if  anyone  was 
left  in  doubt  in  regard  to  his  belief  in  the  atonement  of  Christ 
and  the  final  salvation  of  all  men,  he  removed  those  doubts  in 
a  few  questions  he  answered  and  propounded  to  others.  After 
expressing  himself,  some  one  or  two  took  exceptions  to  his 
position,  and  he  asked  a  few  questions  that  cornered  his  inter 
rogators  and  left  no  room  to  doubt  or  question  his  soundness 
on  the  atonement  of  Christ,  and  salvation  finally  of  all  men. 
He  did  not  pretend  to  know  just  when  that  event  would  be  con 
summated,  but  that  it  would  be  the  ultimate  result,  that  Christ 
must  reign  supreme,  high  over  all,  The  Saviour  of  all;  and  the 
supreme  Ruler,  he  could  not  be  with  one  out  of  the  fold;  all 
must  come  in,  with  his  understanding  of  the  doctrine  taught  in 
the  scriptures. 

[The  above  statement  since  writing  it  has  been  read  to  Mr. 
Harnett  and  indorsed  by  him.] 


350  APPENDICES 

The  next  evidence  I  shall  offer  is  Erasmus  Manford,  of 
Chicago.  About  1850,  he  had  a  debate  in  Springfield,  111.,  with 
Mr.  Lewis.  In  his  book,  "  Twenty-five  Years  in  the  West," 
page  219,  he  says:  "I  remember  well  seeing  Mr.  Lincoln  then 
punctually  every  day  and  night.  He  often  nodded  his  head  to  me 
when  I  made  a  strong  point."  Does  that  look  as  though  Lincoln 
was  an  infidel?  Manford  was  discussing  the  proposition  of 
the  restitution  of  all  things  to  God  which  is  manifested  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord.  Manford  gives  the  quotation,  chapter,  and 
verse,  and  Lincoln  nods  assent  to  the  position.  That  nodding 
assent  to  the  restitution  agrees  precisely  with  Mr.  Harnett's 
statement  of  Lincoln's  position  in  his  presence  seven  or  eight 
years  afterward.  Everyone  understands  that  nodding  assent  to 
the  argument  of  a  speaker  is  an  indorsement  of  what  is  said, 
and  about  equivalent  to  speaking  it  yourself.  Manford  so  under 
stood  it:  so  anyone  would  understand  it. 

My  next  and  last  witness  is  W.  H.  Herndon.  In  his  Abbott 
lecture  in  1870,  Herndon  says  that  Lincoln's  belief  was,  that 


ALL  WOULD  BE  SAVED, 

or  none.  That  remark  he  frequently  or  often  made;  that  agrees 
with  Harnett's  statement  that  he  believed  all  would  be  saved. 
When  a  man  believes  all  men  will  be  saved,  he  can  then  be  logical 
and  say  all  will  be  saved  or  none,  and  not  otherwise.  In  the 
same  letter,  Mr.  Herndon  says  Mr.  Lincoln  held  that  God  had 
a  fixed  punishment  for  sin  and  no  means  could  bribe  him  to 
remit  that  punishment.  That  evidence  agrees  with  Cogdal's 
statement  that  sin  was  to  be  punished,  but  not  endlessly.  Both 
Herndon  and  Cogdal  agree  in  the  statement  that  Lincoln  be 
lieved  that  if  our  ministers  would  preach  punishment  and  not 
so  much  pardon  the  world  would  be  benefited  by  it. 

I  am  now  through  with  the  evidence  I  shall  offer  at  this 
time,  though  I  could  add  the  evidence  of  a  dozen  more  to  the 
same  purport.  I  think  I  have  clearly  proved  that 


LINCOLN    WAS   A   UNIVERSALIST 

in  1833;  that  he  wrote  a  manuscript  on  that  subject  then;  that 
in  1847  he 


APPENDICES  351 


DENIED   THE    CHARGE 

of  infidelity;  that  in  1850-58-59  he  was  still  a  Universalist.  If 
this  be  true  when  was  he  an  infidel?  But  to  get  a  clear  under 
standing  of  the  case,  Universalism  and  infidelity  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  poles.  Universalism  maintains  that  there  is  one 
God,  whose  nature  is  love  revealed  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
This  Lincoln  certainly  believed,  infidelity  denies  it.  Universalism 
maintains  that  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God;  infidelity  denies  it. 
Universalism  maintains  that  the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scrip 
tures  contain  a  record  of  God's  revelation  to  man;  infidelity 
denies  it,  and  says  the  New  Testament  is  no  more  inspired  than 
Homer's  songs,  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost,"  or  Shakspeare.  My 
authority  for  the  infidel  view  is  W.  H.  Herndon,  in  his  letter. 

Before  closing,  I  wish  it  distinctly  understood  that  if  I  could 
show  that 

LINCOLN    WAS    NOT    AN    INFIDEL 

without  showing  him  a  Universalist,  I  would  do  so;  that  I  am 
not  trying  to  bolster  up  Universalism  on  Lincoln's  faith,  as  I 
do  not  claim  to  be  a  Universalist  myself. 

There  are  many  points  in  Mr.  Herndon's  lecture  and  letter 
that  I  might  notice,  but  as  I  am  only  trying  to  show  that 

HERNDON    IS     WRONG 

in  his  understanding  of  Lincoln's  religious  belief,  I  shall  not 
notice  them,  as  they  do  not  concern  me  or  the  question  in  dis 
pute. 

Mr.  Herndon,  in  his  lecture  and  letter  both,  says  Mr.  Lincoln 
wrote  a  manuscript  against  Christianity.     Mr.  Graham,  - 

LINCOLN'S  TEACHER 

at  the  time,  testifies  that  he  had  the  manuscript  in  his  possession 
eight  to  ten  days,  read  it  two  or  three  times  carefully  and  it 
was  in  favor  of  Christianity  and  universal  salvation.  Mr.  Mos- 
tiller  says  Lincoln  flatly  denied  infidelity  in  1847,  an<^  ne  would 
swear  to  it.  Mr.  Harnett  heard  Lincoln  on  the  atonement  in 
1858.  Mr.  Cogdal  testifies  to  the  same  in  1859.  The  character 
of  all  these  men  for  truth  and  veracity  is  as  good  as  any  man 
in  Sangamon  or  Menard  County.  Harnett  and  Mostiller  are 


352  APPENDICES 

both  Methodists,  differing  politically.  Graham  and  Cogdal  are 
both  Universalists,  and  agree  politically.  Mr.  Herndon  in  his 
letter  says  the  manuscript  was  burned  by  Sam  Hill.  Mr.  Gra 
ham  explains  it  was  a  letter  in  regard  to  a  lady, 

MISS    ANN     RUTLEDGE, 

that  Hill  burned.  It  seems  to  me  Mr.  Herndon  has  got  the 
manuscript  and  letter  confounded,  and  shot  off  hand  without 
taking  aim  at  the  right  object.  My  friend  Herndon,  at  the 
close  of  his  lecture,  derives  consolation  from  the  fact  that  a 
true  history  can  be  written  free  from  the  fear  of  fire  and  stake. 
Friend  Herndon,  if  your  life  is  certainly  not  in  danger  some 
true  spirit  will 

DRAG    THE    TRUTH 

out  to  the  light  of  day. 

But  hear  the  closing  words  of  Herndon's  lecture ;  "  Now  let 
it  be  written  in  history  and  on  Mr.  Lincoln's  tomb  he  died  an 
unbeliever."  Mr.  Herndon  is  in  a  hurry  about  it.  Be  patient, 
William;  wait  for  the  unfolding  of  events.  The  decree  has  long 
since  gone  out;  those  words  will  never  be  inscribed  on 

LINCOLN'S  TOMB, 

nor  written  in  history.  When  my  friend,  W.  H.  Herndon,  dies, 
if  he  wishes  a  monument  on  a  small  scale  placed  over  his  grave 
with  the  inscription,  "  Here  lies  W.  H.  Herndon,  a  man  who 
in  life  held  that  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  were  no  more 
inspired  than  Homer's  songs,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  or  Shaks- 
peare,"  or  if  he  desires  it,  add  "  Munchausen's  Travels,"  I  will 
not,  for  one,  object  to  the  inscription.  As  regards  Mr.  Hern 
don's  own  belief,  he  leaves  no  room  for  doubt. 

B.  F.  IRWIN. 
From  the  Illinois  State  Journal,  Saturday  Morning,  May  15,  1874. 

MORE  TESTIMONY 

Letter  from  the  Hon.  Wm.  Reid,  U.  S.  Consul  at  Dundee,  Scot 
land.  (Dundee,  Scotland,  Correspondence  [March  4,  1874] 
Portland  [Oregon]  Oregonian). 

The  Weekly  Oregonian  of  January  last  arrived  and  I  am 
grieved  to  see  in  it  opened  afresh  that  controversy  over  Lin- 


APPENDICES  353 

coin's  religious  views.  Being  well  conversant  with  the  affairs 
of  the  Lincoln  family,  knowing  Mrs.  Lincoln  personally,  having 
been  in  correspondence  with  that  lady,  and  having  also  been 
of  some  assistance  in  a  work  entitled  "  Reminiscences  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,"  I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  with  some  knowledge 
of  the  facts. 

Lincoln,  when  16  years  of  age, 


IN  THE  BACKWOODS  OF  WESTERN  INDIANA 

heard  a  sermon  by  a  traveling  Presbyterian  minister — the  Rev. 
Dr.  Smith — (afterwards  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Springfield,  Illinois)  then  a  minister  of  the  Cumberland  Presby 
terian  Church.  The  subject  was:  "  Is  there  no  Balm  in  Gilead? 
Is  there  no  Physician  there  ? "  The  sermon  was  delivered  at 
the  village  of  Rockfort,  four  miles  from  the  small  farm  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  Abraham's  father.  There  was  a  great  revival 
on  that  occasion.  Always  a  deep  thinker,  even  when  a  boy, 
Lincoln  was  seriously  impressed.  Adopting  his  own  words,  he 
remembered  the  sermon  for  more  than  twenty  years  afterwards. 
Book  after  book  he  then  read  on  the  authenticity  of  the  Scrip 
tures,  and  was  satisfied.  Many  years  after  delivering  that 
sermon  Dr.  Smith  removed  to  Springfield,  Illinois. 

This  same  Dr.  Smith,  I  spent  two  years  with  here  at  Dundee, 
and  attended  him  to  his  death  in  1871.  He  was  the  bosom 
friend  of  Lincoln,  and  the  friend  and  dearly  beloved  pastor  of 
the  Lincoln  family. 

Some  years  after  Dr.  Smith  happened  on  a  Sabbath  day,  in 
his  church  at  Springfield,  to  re-deliver  his  sermon  (delivered, 
I  think,  eighteen  years  previous).  "  Is  there  no  Balm  in  Gilead? 
Is  there  no  Physician  there  ? "  Lincoln,  always  a  regular  at 
tendant,  was  there  and  was  much  startled.  When  the  congrega 
tion  had  gone,  he  sought  the  preacher.  "  Dr.  Smith,"  said  he, 
"  was  it  you  who  preached  that  sermon  when  I  was  a  boy  at 
Rockfort?  "  "  Yes."  "  Well,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  I  have  never 
forgotten  that  sermon,  and  never  will."  I  need  not  narrate 
what  then  passed  between  them.  Sometime  after  this  a  discus 
sion  arose  in  Springfield,  as  to  the  credibility  of  the  Scripture. 
Knowing  Lincoln's  well-balanced  mind,  his  studious  and  deep- 
thinking  nature  and  downright  honesty,  a  gentleman,  anxious 
to  have  his  views,  asked  if  he  believed  the  Scriptures  were  strictly 


354  APPENDICES 

true.  Lincoln  answered :  "  I  have  investigated  that  matter  thor 
oughly,  as  a  lawyer  would  do,  examining  testimony,  and  I  hold 
that  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  credibility,  inspiration,  and 
Divine  authority  of  the  Scripture  are  unanswerable." 

At  an  annual  meeting  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Spring 
field,  or  rather  of  the  Bible  Society  of  that  church,  Lincoln  de 
livered  a  long  address  on  the  same  subject — the  authenticity  of 
the  Scriptures.  An  able  address  it  was.  His  arguments  are 
too  lengthy  for  me  to  narrate.  For  seven  years,  down  to  the 
day  of  his  departure  for  Washington  to 

ASSUME  THE  DUTIES  OF  THE  PRESIDENCY, 

he  was  a  member  of  that  congregation,  and  took  part  and  aided 
in  all  benevolent  undertakings  in  connection  with  the  church. 
Were  I  allowed  to  unfold  to  the  public  what  is  sacred,  that 
which  I  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  inner  life  during  the  four  years 
he  was  President,  his  memory  would  be  revered  by  all  Chris 
tians  for  his  entire  dependence  during  that  eventful  period  upon 
God's  guidance,  and  not  on  himself.  Truly  no  man  thought 
less  of  himself  and  of  his  nothingness  without  God.  This  is 
exemplified  in  his  public  life.  When  assuming  the  Presidency, 
what  did  he  say?  Speaking  of  the  contrast  of  his  time  to  Wash 
ington's  : 

"  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  Divine  Aid 
which  sustained  him  [Washington],  and  on  the  same  Almighty 
Being  I  place  my  reliance  for  support.  And  I  hope  that  you,  my 
friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance, 
without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is 
certain." 

If  an  infidel,  then  is  it  possible  that  Abraham  Lincoln  could 
be  an  honest  man  as  the  world  knows  he  was — and  make  that 
assertion?  Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  say  more?  If  so,  let  me 
remind  you  of  his  words 

(1)  To  that  zealous 

LADY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   COMMISSION 

during  the  war,  in  answer  to  her  views  of  religion : 

If  what  you  have  told  me  is  really  a  correct  view,  I  think  I 
can  say  with  sincerity  that  I  hope  I  am  a  Christian. 

(2)  To  the  Philadelphia  Church  Conference  in  1864:  Allow 


APPENDICES  355 

me  to  attest,  in  response  to  your  address,  the  accuracy  of  its 
historical  statements;  indorse  the  sentiments  it  expresses,  and 
thank  you  in  the  Nation's  name  for  the  sure  promise  it  gives. 
God  bless  the  Methodist  Church,  God  bless  all  the  churches,  and 
blessed  be  God  who  giveth  us,  in  this  our  great  trial,  churches ! 

(3)  To  the  Cabinet  on  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves : 

"  I  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God  that  if  General  Lee  were 
driven  from  Pennsylvania,  I  would  crown  the  result  by  declaring 
freedom  to  the  slaves." 

(4)  On   the   same   subject    [slavery]    remember   he    said: 
"  Whatever  appears  to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do." 

ONE  MORE  FINAL  PUBLIC  ACT 

and  I  am  done.  At  Baltimore  he  was  presented  by  the  negrces 
of  that  city  with  a  copy  of  the  Scriptures.  In  reply,  Lincoln 
said: 

"  In  regard  to  the  great  Book,  I  have  only  to  say,  it  is  the  best 
gift  which  God  has  given  to  man.  All  the  good  from  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  is  communicated  to  us  through  this  Book.  But  for 
that  Book  we  could  not  know  right  from  wrong.  All  those 
things  desirable  to  man  are  contained  in  it." 

It  may  appear  unnecessary  for  me  to  repeat  Lincoln's 

PUBLIC   EXPRESSIONS  OF  RELIGION 

in  conjunction  with  what  I  have  issued  to  the  world  for  the 
first  time,  as  to  his  religious  life  in  private  before  he  was 
President,  but  as  my  object  is  to  connect  his  private  and  public 
religious  expressions  together,  and  bring  them  down  from  the 
time  he  was  sixteen  years  old  to  his  death,  and  to  show  that  he 
was,  for  these  thirty  years, 

UNIFORMLY  A  CHRISTIAN  MAN, 

you  will  pardon  my  repeating  in  part  what  the  whole  world 
already  knows.  Take  Lincoln's  expressions  altogether  as  above 
quoted  by  me,  and  I  submit  you  will  find  not  only  an  absence  of 
the  slightest  doubt  of  religion  on  his  part,  but  an  entire  reliance 
on  God  alone  for  guiding  himself  and  the  events  of  the  world. 
And  yet  that  foolish  man,  Herndon,  will  say — and  I  am  sorry 
to  see  a  small  portion  of  the  American  press  will  repeat — that 


356  APPENDICES 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  Infidel.  Marvelous!  I  am  proud  to 
think  I  have  in  my  possession — as  a  reward  for  a  few  insignificant 
services  done  by  me  on  account  of  Mrs.  Lincoln — the  great  and 
Martyred  President's  psalm  book,  which  he  used  while  at  the 
White  House,  and  I  shall  retain  it  as  a  proud  memento  for  my 
family,  of  "  Lincoln  the  Good — the  Saviour  of  his  Country." 

A  word  before  I  close,  as  to  Mrs.  Lincoln.  She  is  a  lady 
of  great  merit,  and  spite  of  Herndon's  mad  expression  to  the 
contrary,  was  dearly  loved  by  the  President,  as  his  letters  to  her 
will  show,  and  one  does  not  wonder  at  it,  as  her  love  and  regard 
for  him  to  this  day  is  even  greater  than  tongue  can  tell.  If  the 
American  people  understood  Mrs.  Lincoln  as  well  as  I  do,  they 
would  respect  her  equally  as  they  did  Lincoln. 

Yours  truly, 

WILLIAM  REED, 
United  States  Consul,  Dundee,  Scotland. 

From  the  Illinois  State  Journal,  Saturday  Morning,  May  15,  1874. 

WHY    LINCOLN    APPOINTED    HIM 

Reading  (Pa.)  News 

The  Rev.  James  Shrigley  who  is  well  known  here,  was  ap 
pointed  by  President  Lincoln  a  hospital  Chaplain  during  the  war. 
Pending  his  confirmation  by  the  United  States,  a  self -constituted 
committee  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  called  on 
the  President  to  protest  against  the  appointment.  After  Mr. 
Shrigley's  name  had  been  mentioned  the  President  said :  "  Oh, 
yes,  I  have  sent  it  to  the  Senate.  His  testimonials  are  highly 
satisfactory,  and  the  appointment  will,  no  doubt,  be  confirmed 
at  an  early  day." 

The  young  men  replied :  "  But,  sir,  we  have  come  not  to  ask 
the  appointment,  but  to  solicit  you  to  withdraw  the  nomination, 
on  the  ground  that  Mr.  Shrigley  is  not  evangelical  in  his  senti 
ments."  "Ah!"  said  the  President,  "that  alters  the  case.  On 
what  point  of  doctrine  is  the  gentleman  unsound  ?  "  "  He  does 
not  believe  in  endless  punishment,"  was  the  reply.  "  Yes,"  added 
another  of  the  committee,  "  he  believes  that  even  the  rebels  them 
selves  will  finally  be  saved,  and  it  will  never  do  to  have  a  man 
with  such  views  a  hospital  Chaplain." 

The  President  hesitated  to  reply  for  a  moment,  and  then 
responded  with  an  emphasis  they  will  long  remember :  "  If  that 


APPENDICES  357 

be  so,  gentlemen,  and  there  be  any  way  under  heaven  whereby  the 
rebels  can  be  saved,  then  for  God's  sake  let  the  man  be  ap 
pointed  ! " 

He  was  appointed. 

From  the  'Daily  Illinois  State  Register,  Friday,  April  29,  1881. 


APPENDIX  VII 
"  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE  " 

THE  debate  out  of  which  this  volume  grew  was  held  at  Colum 
bus,  Mississippi,  in  the  spring  of  1841,  between  Rev.  James  Smith 
and  Mr.  C.  G.  Olmsted.  Mr.  Olmsted,  the  author  of  a  work  en 
titled,  "The  Bible  Its  Own  Refutation,"  was  a  resident  of 
Columbus.  Dr.  Smith  visited  this  city  during  the  winter  of 
1839-1840,  and  finding  the  young  men  of  the  place  to  be  very 
largely  under  the  influence  of  Mr.  Olmsted,  he  delivered  a  series 
of  lectures,  especially  addressed  to  the  young  men  of  the  place, 
on  "  The  Natures  and  Tendencies  of  Infidelity,"  and  another 
upon,  "  The  Evidences  of  Christianity."  While  these  lectures 
were  in  progress,  Dr.  Smith  was  approached  by  a  committee, 
who  sympathized  with  Mr.  Olmsted's  views,  and  who,  with  the 
sanction  of  Mr.  Olmsted,  brought  a  written  challenge  to  Dr. 
Smith  to  meet  Mr.  Olmsted  in  a  public  discussion  of  the  whole 
ground  at  issue  between  them.  Dr.  Smith  accepted  on  condi 
tion  that  he  have  time  for  adequate  preparation.  He  com 
municated  with  friends  in  Great  Britain,  who  procured  and  sent 
to  him  the  latest  and  best  material  bearing  on  the  subject.  His 
book  contains  reproductions  of  the  supposed  Zodiac  at  Denderah, 
and  a  colored  reproduction  from  the  monuments  of  Egypt  of 
brickmakers,  believed  to  be  Israelites.  The  researches  of  Raw- 
linson  were  made  available  to  him,  and  a  considerable  body  of 
additional  literature. 

Because  Dr.  Smith's  book  has  been  spoken  of  slightingly  by 
men  who  never  saw  it  and  who  had  the  vaguest  possible  notion 
of  its  content,  and  because  the  book  itself  is  so  excessively  rare 
that  in  the  nature  of  the  case  few  readers  of  this  volume  can  have 
access  to  it,  I  have  copied  the  Title  Page,  a  portion  of  the  adver 
tisement,  and  the  whole  of  the  very  full  Table  of  Contents. 

We  need  not  concern  ourselves  with  the  question  whether 
Dr.  Smith's  line  of  argument  is  that  which  probably  would  be 
found  most  cogent  if  a  similar  debate  were  to  be  held  at  the 
present  day.  Sources  of  information  are  now  available,  of  which 

358 


APPENDICES  359 

neither  Dr.  Smith  nor  his  opponent  could  possibly  have  had  any 
knowledge.  But  any  reader  of  this  chapter  analysis  will  be 
compelled  to  testify  that  a  book  which  covered  the  ground  of 
this  outline  and  did  it  with  logical  acumen  and  force  of  rea 
soning,  is  not  to  be  spoken  of  now  in  terms  other  than  those  of 
admiration  for  the  industry  and  earnestness  of  the  author,  and 
the  cogency  of  the  conclusions  which  he  deduced  from  his 
premises.  One  is  prepared  to  believe  from  the  testimony  included 
in  a  number  of  letters  that  are  reprinted  in  the  advertisement  and 
in  the  preface  that  these  lectures  produced  a  profound  impres 
sion  upon  those  who  heard  this  discussion. 

The  more  carefully  these  lectures  are  examined,  the  more 
probable  does  it  appear  that  in  form  and  method  they  would 
have  been  likely  to  make,  what  they  appear  to  have  made,  a  very 
strong  impression  upon  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  must  have  been 
evident  to  him  that  Dr.  Smith  was  familiar  with  both  sides  of 
the  question,  and  Lincoln  can  but  have  admired  the  courage  and 
ardor  with  which  he  went  into  a  discussion  so  fully  in  keeping 
with  methods  which  Abraham  Lincoln  himself  enjoyed  and  which 
later  he  employed  in  his  great  debate  with  Douglas.  We  can 
well  believe  that  he  spoke  with  the  utmost  sincerity  when  he 
told  Dr.  Smith  that  he  counted  the  argument  unanswerable,  and 
stated  to  his  brother-in-law,  Hon.  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  and  his 
associate  at  the  bar,  Mr.  Thomas  Lewis,  that  these  lectures  had 
modified  his  own  opinion. 


NOTICES  OF  THE  DEBATE  WHICH  LED  TO  THE 
PUBLISHING  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE 

From  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate,  Columbus, 
Miss.,  1841 

MR.  EDITOR — I  have  thought  that  a  concise  account  of  this 
debate  might  not  be  unacceptable  to  your  readers.  It  is  a  mor 
tifying  fact,  that  this  city  has  become  FAMOUS — or  rather 
INFAMOUS  for  the  prevalence  of  deism  and  atheism  among 
her  citizens.  This  has  been  produced  in  a  good  degree  by  the 
efforts  of  an  old  gentleman  by  the  name  Olmsted.  Since  his 
residence  here,  which  has  been  for  about  four  years,  he  has  been 


360  APPENDICES 

untiring  in  his  exertions  to  sow  the  seeds  of  moral  death  in 
this  community.  He  has  organized  his  converts  into  a  band, 
that  operates  systematically.  He  has  written  a  book,  which  is 
not  exceeded  by  TOM  PAINE'S  Age  of  Reason,  for  scurrility 
and  ridicule.  The  old  gentleman  is  as  artful  as  the  old  DE 
STROYER  himself ;  by  which  means  he  has  obtained  an  im 
mense  influence  over  the  minds  of  the  young  men  of  this  place. 

The  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  the  debate  were  as 
follows:  The  Rev.  James  Smith,  during  a  visit  in  this  city,  de 
livered  a  few  discourses  on  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  in 
fidelity,  addressing  himself  particularly  to  the  youth.  This  in 
duced  a  committee  of  infidel  gentlemen  to  address  a  written  chal 
lenge  to  Mr.  S.,  to  meet  their  champion,  Mr.  O.,  in  a  public 
debate.  Mr.  S.  by  the  advice  of  many  intelligent  friends  of 
truth,  accepted  the  challenge.  The  time  arrived,  and  the  dis 
cussion  commenced.  All  was  anxiety  and  interest.  The  house 
was  crowded,  even  the  aisles  and  windows,  with  attentive  hear 
ers.  They  arranged  to  speak  alternately,  one,  two  hours  each 
night,  and  the  other  a  half  hour;  so  the  debate  continued  two 
hours  and  a  half  each  night.  From  the  representation  of  Mr. 
O's  talents,  learning,  and  preparation,  we  were  made  to  tremble 
for  the  results ;  but  we  were  not  a  little  disappointed  to  find  the 
old  gentleman  fall  far  below  his  fame.  .  .  . 

He  asserted  that  the  Jews  did  not  believe  in  a  future  state 
of  existence,  until  after  the  Babylonish  captivity;  that  they  bor 
rowed  their  doctrines  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  from  the 
nations  among  whom  they  were  dispersed — that  the  Jews  believed 
in  a  plurality  of  gods — that  St.  Paul  was  the  author  of  Chris 
tianity — that  Christianity  encourages  polygamy.  To  prove  this 
last  position,  he  quoted  Paul's  directions  to  Timothy :  "  Let  a 
bishop  be  the  husband  of  one  wife."  And  to  crown  the  mass 
of  absurdities,  he  endeavored  to  prove  that  the  blessed  Jesus 
was  a  base  impostor. 

We  found  Mr.  Smith  well  prepared  for  the  contest.  He 
had  his  arguments  systematically  arranged — had  written  them 
all,  and  read  them  well.  He  proved  to  a  demonstration,  the 

GENUINENESS,     AUTHENTICITY     and     INSPIRATION     of      the      Old 

Testament  Scriptures.  His  arguments  were  interesting  and 
convincing.  His  arguments  on  the  New  Testament  were  equally 
happy,  and  if  possible,  more  convincing.  The  conclusion  of 
every  inquirer  after  truth,  must  have  been,  that  the  champion 


APPENDICES  361 

of  deism  was  signally  defeated,  and  his  cause  left  bleeding  on 
the  field.  I  doubt  not  but  the  defeat  would  have  been  more 
complete,  had  Mr.  S.  omitted  some  of  his  personal  allusions,  and 
had  he  suppressed  his  natural  inclination  to  sarcasm.  Indeed  his 
blasts  of  sarcasm  were  truly  WITHERING.  His  opponent,  finding 
that  he  could  not  cope  with  him  in  this  respect,  retreated,  and  took 
shelter  under  the  sympathies  of  his  audience. 

Yours,  &c., 

ONE  OF  THE  HEARERS. 


362  APPENDICES 

THE 

CHRISTIAN'S  DEFENCE 

CONTAINING 
A  FAIR  STATEMENT  AND  IMPARTIAL  EXAMINATION 

OF  THE 
LEADING  OBJECTIONS   URGED  BY  INFIDELS 

AGAINST  THE 

ANTIQUITY,   GENUINENESS,   CREDIBILITY  AND 
INSPIRATION 

OF  THE 

HOLY  SCRIPTURES; 

ENRICHED  WITH  COPIOUS  EXTRACTS  FROM 
LEARNED  AUTHORS. 

BY  JAMES  SMITH. 


"  The  Christian  Faith, 

Unlike  the  tim'rous  creeds  of  pagan  priests, 
Is  frank,  stands  forth  to  view,  inviting  all 
To  prove,  examine,  search,  investigate  ; 
And  gave  herself  a  light  to  see  her  by  ."—Pollock's  Course  of  Time,  B.  iv. 

"  If  I  have  done  well,  and  as  is  fitting  the  story,  it  is 
that  which  I  desired  ;  but  if  slenderly  and  meanly,  it 
is  that  which  I  could  attain  unto."— 2  Maccabees  xv,  38. 


TWO  VOLUMES  IN   ONE 


CINCINNATI : 

STEREOTYPED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  A.  JAMES 

1843 


APPENDICES  363 


CONTENTS 
VOLUME  I 

ON  THE  CREDIBILITY,  ANTIQUITY,  AND  GENUINENESS  OF 
THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES 

CHAPTER  I 

The  nations  of  the  earth  are  indebted  to  the  Jews  for  the 
Bible. — Taylor's  assertion,  that  no  such  nation  as  the  Jew 
ish  ever  existed.  Its  confutation.  The  Jews  and  Chris 
tians  hold  the  Old  Testament  to  be  a  revelation  from  God. 
Infidels  hold  this  to  be  untrue.  How  the  question  at  issue 
is  to  be  settled.  The  frame  of  mind  necessary  to  an  im 
partial  examination  of  the  subject. — Objections  of  the 
Atheistical  Infidel  against  the  claims  of  the  Bible  as  a 
divine  revelation.  Mr.  Olmsted's  misrepresentation  of  the 
position  of  the  advocates  of  Revelation.  The  questions  at 
issue  between  the  Christian  and  Atheist.  That  between 
the  Christian  and  the  Deist I 

SECTION  I. — Confutation  of  the  theory  of  the  material 
ist.  Confutations  of  the  positions  of  the  two  classes  of 
Atheists 6 

SECTION  II. — Hume's  argument  to  prove  that  Polytheism 
was  the  first  religion  of  mankind.  Its  confutation  .  .  23 

SECTION  III.— Of  the  style  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip 
tures.  Example  from  Mr.  Olmsted,  showing  the  necessity 
of  understanding  its  nature.  The  Scriptures  speak  the  lan 
guage  of  appearances,  but  strictly  philosophical  ...  40 

CHAPTER  II 

Mr.  Olmsted's  assertion  concerning  the  requisitions  of  the  advo 
cate  of  Revelation  in  examining  the  credibility  of  the 
Mosaic  writings.  Its  falsehood.  His  allegation  that  the 
first  sentence  in  the  Bible  contains  a  falsehood.  The  con 
futation  of  his  argument.  His  objection  to  the  credibility 
of  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  creation  founded  on  the 
statement  that  the  world  was  made  in  six  days.  Vindica 
tion  of  the  Mosaic  narrative. — Infidel  objection  to  the 


364  APPENDICES 

Mosaic  narrative  founded  on  the  zodiacs  in  the  temples  of 
Latapolis  and  Tantyra.  Its  fallacy. — Dr.  Keith's  proofs 
of  the  truthfulness  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  creation  48 

SECTION  I. — Mosaic  account  of  the  creation  confirmed 
by  tradition.  The  Hindoo  account;  that  of  Ovid;  the 
Phenician;  the  Egyptian;  that  of  Plato. — The  heathen 
tradition  concerning  the  first  man.  Division  of  time  into 
weeks,  a  confirmation  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  75 

SECTION  II. — Paine's  and  Olmsted's  objection  on  ac 
count  of  the  narrative  of  the  fall  of  man.  Their  confuta 
tion.  The  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  fall  of  man  confirmed 
by  heathen  traditions;  by  the  universality  of  serpent  wor 
ship;  by  the  condition  of  mankind;  by  the  opinions  of  the 
heathen  philosophers  concerning  the  corruption  of  human 
nature;  by  the  belief  of  the  Brahmins;  by  the  opinions  of 
the  classical  mythologists,  and  by  the  universal  practice  of 
animal  sacrifice. — The  account  of  the  translation  of  Enoch 
confirmed  by  the  Grecian  fables. — The  longevity  of  the 
antediluvian  patriarchs  confirmed  by  heathen  traditions. — 
Mosaic  account  of  man  of  gigantic  stature  confirmed  by 
the  Greek  and  Latin  poets  ..........  85 


CHAPTER  III 

Objection  to  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  deluge,  because  con 
trary  to  the  philosophy  of  Nature.  Its  fallacy. — The  truth 
of  the  narrative  confirmed  by  the  fossil  remains  of  ani 
mals. — Objection  founded  on  the  size  of  the  ark.  Shown 
to  be  fallacious. — Objection  founded  on  certain  marks  of 
antiquity  said  to  exist  in  the  lava  of  Mt.  Etna.  Mr. 
Home's  confutation  of  the  argument. — Objection  on  ac 
count  of  the  differences  in  color,  existing  among  mankind. 
Its  fallacy.  Dr.  Good's  argument,  confirmatory  of  the 
Mosaic  narrative. — Objections  founded  upon  the  supposed 
antiquity  of  the  eastern  nations.  Confutation  of  the  ob 
jection. — Objections  founded  on  the  condition  of  America 
when  discovered  by  Columbus.  Proofs  that  two  distinct 
races  of  men  immigrated  into  America  from  Asia.  The 
present  Indians,  of  the  same  race  with  the  tribes  of 
northern  Asia.  The  ancient  Mexicans  and  Peruvians, 
originally  proceeded  from  the  same  stock  with  the  nations 

of  southern  Asia 100 

SECTION  I. — Mosaic  account  of  the  deluge  confirmed  by 
Pagan  history.  Its  memory  incorporated  with  almost  every 
part  of  the  heathen  mythology.  Noah  claimed  by  all  the 


APPENDICES  365 

heathen  nations  as  their  founder,  and  worshiped  by  them  as 
a  god.  Saturn,  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  Menu  of  the 
Hindoos,  and  Noah  identical.  The  Hindoo  account  of  the 
deluge.  The  Chinese  and  Grecian  accounts.  The  ark  men 
tioned  by  heathen  historians.  Plutarch's  notice  of  the  dove 
which  was  sent  out  of  the  ark.  The  heathens  carried  their 
deities  in  an  ark.  Ancient  medals  commemorative  of  the 
deluge.  American  traditions  of  that  calamity.  Summing 
up  of  the  argument 125 

SECTION  II. — Confirmation  of  the  Mosaic  representa 
tion  of  the  origin  of  families  and  nations.  Testimony  of 
Sir  W.  Jones. — Confirmation  of  the  Mosaic  accounts  of 
the  tower  of  Babel. — Of  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  known  to  the  an 
cient  heathens.  Mr.  Olmsted's  attempt  to  invalidate  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  condition  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt. 
The  confutation  of  his  argument. — His  argument  to  in 
validate  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  exode  of 
the  Israelites  from  Egypt  and  the  circumstances  attending 
it.  Vindication  of  the  Mosaic  narrative. — Explanation  of 
the  design  of  the  miraculous  interposition  in  behalf  of  the 
Israelites.  The  fitness  and  tendency  of  each  of  the  plagues 
inflicted  upon  the  Egyptians.  Confutation  of  Mr.  Olm 
sted's  allegation  that  Moses  extorted  permission  for  the 
Israelites  to  leave  Egypt,  by  false  pretentions.  Vindica 
tion  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  hardening  of  Pharaoh's 
heart.  Mr.  Olmsted's  supposition  that  the  Israelites  were 
a  horde  of  rude  barbarians,  in  behalf  of  whom  there  was 
no  divine  interposition.  The  fallacy  and  absurdity  of  his 
supposition 135 

SECTION  III. — Collateral  testimony  confirmative  of  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  exode  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt, 
their  sojourn  in  the  wilderness,  and  settlement  in  Canaan. 
Curious  discovery  confirmatory  of  the  Mosaic  narrative. 
Trogus'  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Jews.  The  account  of 
their  origin  by  Apion,  an  Egyptian  writer.  Manetho's  ac 
count  of  the  shepherds  who  retreated  from  Egypt  to  Judea. 
Tacitus'  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Jews.  Artapanus' 
relation  concerning  Moses.  Janes  and  Jambres,  the  Egyptian 
magicians,  well  known  to  heathen  writers.  Strabo's  account 
of  Moses.  The  account  of  the  Heliopolitans  concerning  the 
passage  of  the  Red  Sea.  A  similar  tradition  by  Diodorus. 
The  inhabitants  of  Corondel  to  this  day  preserve  the  re 
membrance  of  the  passing  of  the  Red  Sea  by  the  Israelites. 
The  names  of  different  places  passed  by  the  Israelites 


366  APPENDICES 

during  their  sojourn  in  the  wilderness  confirm  the  Mosaic 
narrative.  The  writer  of  the  Orphic  verses  speaks  of 
Moses  and  the  tables  of  the  Laws.  Didorus  Siculus  notices 
Moses.  Dionysius  Longius  makes  honorable  mention  of 
Moses.  Accuracy  of  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the  sojourn 
in  the  wilderness  confirmed  by  Laborde.  The  tomb  of 
Aaron  on  Mount  Hor,  confirms  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic 
narrative.  Summing  up  of  the  argument  from  collateral 
testimony.  A  very  conclusive  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
Mosaic  history  quoted  from  Dr.  Keith. — The  history  of  the 
Israelites  subsequent  to  the  settlement  in  Canaan  cor 
roborated  by  profane  writers.  Curious  discovery,  illustra 
tive  of  the  Scriptural  account  of  the  war  carried  on  by 
Pharaoh-Necho  against  the  Jews  and  Babylonians. — Con 
futation  of  the  objection  founded  by  Infidels  upon  the  sup 
posed  sterility  of  the  soil  of  Palestine.  Forcible  testimony 
to  the  credibility  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  afforded 
by  the  present  condition  of  the  Jews 159 

CHAPTER  IV 

Efforts  of  Infidels  to  show  that  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment  are  forgeries  of  comparative  modern  date.  Their 
objections  considered.  Curious  discovery  illustrative  of  the 
antiquity  and  exactness  of  the  Mosaic  writings.  The  utter 
impossibility  of  the  books  being  forgeries  proven. — Mr. 
Olmsted's  argument  to  prove  that  the  book  of  the  law  was 
forged  by  Ezra.  Confutation  of  his  argument.  Proofs 
that  the  law  could  not  have  been  forged  by  Daniel  nor  by 
any  of  the  captives  in  Babylon;  that  it  could  not  have  been 
forged  by  Isaiah.  A  forgery  could  not  have  been  effected 
after  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes.  It  could  not  have  been 
forged  by  David;  nor  by  Saul:  nor  by  any  of  the  Judges 
who  preceded  Samuel.  The  law  existed  in  Joshua's  time. 
Joshua  could  not  have  forged  the  law.  The  impossibility 
of  practicing  a  fraud  upon  the  Israelites  during  a  sojourn 
in  the  wilderness. — The  books  of  the  Pentateuch  have  in 
ternal  marks,  which  demonstrate  that  they  were  written 
by  Moses.  The  book  of  Genesis  included  by  the  Jews  in 
the  book  of  the  law.  Evidences  of  its  antiquity  and  gen 
uineness. — Profane  testimony  to  the  genuineness  of  the 
Mosaic  writings.  Objection  on  the  ground  that  although 
Moses  wrote  a  book  called  the  book  of  the  law,  we  have 
no  evidence  that  it  was  the  book  now  current  in  his  name. 
The  objection  considered  and  answered 193 


APPENDICES  367 

SECTION  I. — Objection  of  Infidels  against  the  books  of 
Judges,  Kings,  and  Chronicles,  because  they  are  anonymous. 
The  objection  answered. — The  objections  against  the  gen 
uineness  of  the  other  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  In  effect 
answered  in  the  foregoing  arguments. — Mr.  Paine's  argu 
ment  to  prove  that  the  Mosaic  writings  are  spurious, 
founded  upon  the  style.  Confutation  of  his  argument.  His 
argument  founded  on  the  passage  "  Now  the  man  Moses 
was  very  meek,"  etc.  Its  confutation. — His  argument 
founded  on  the  statement  that  Abraham  pursued  the  four 
kings  unto  Dan.  Its  fallacy. — His  argument  founded  on 
what  is  said  of  the  descendants  of  Esau.  The  argument 
considered,  confuted. — His  argument  founded  on  the  pas 
sage  "  The  children  of  Israel  did  eat  manna  until  they  came 
to  a  land  inhabited,"  etc.  Its  fallacy.  His  argument  founded 
on  what  is  said  concerning  Og's  bedstead.  The  argument 
confuted. — The  argument  founded  on  the  record  of  the 
death  of  Moses  being  contained  in  the  books  attributed  to 
him.  The  argument  confuted. — The  evidence  adduced 
establishes  the  genuineness  and  credibility  of  the  books. — 
Objection  that  Moses  must  have  borrowed  the  history  of 
the  creation  from  the  traditions  which  obtained  in  his  time. 
Reply  to  the  objection. — The  question,  Whence  did  Moses 
derive  the  materials  of  his  history?  Answered  by  Mr. 
Home. — Objections  on  the  ground  that  no  dependence  is  to 
be  placed  in  the  present  text  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip 
tures.  Its  fallacy 227 

CHAPTER  V 

A  number  of  objections  necessarily  omitted,  stated  and  an 
swered. — Mr.  Olmsted's  argument  to  prove  that  the  author 
of  the  book  of  Genesis  was  a  polytheist.  Its  confutation. — 
His  argument  to  prove  that  the  author  of  the  book  of 
Genesis  believed  God  to  be  a  corporeal  being.  Its  confuta 
tion.  Objections  founded  on  the  statements  concerning 
Cain.  Their  fallacy. — Cavil  of  Infidels  at  the  curse  pro 
nounced  by  Noah  upon  Canaan.  Its  unreasonableness. 
Objections  founded  on  the  cause  assigned  for  the  diversity 
of  languages.  Vindication  of  the  Scriptural  account. — Ob 
jection  founded  on  the  conduct  of  Lot.  Its  fallacy. — Ob 
jection  founded  on  the  misconduct  of  Abraham.  Consid 
eration  of  the  objection  as  applied  not  merely  to  Abraham, 
but  also  to  Jacob  and  David. — Objection  on  the  ground  that 
God  is  represented  as  commanding  Abraham  to  sacrifice 


368  APPENDICES 

Isaac.  Vindication  of  the  Scriptural  account  of  that  af 
fair. — Objection,  on  the  ground  that  circumcision  was  first 
practiced  by  the  Egyptians.  Its  fallacy. — Objection 
founded  on  the  representation  given  by  Moses  of  the  works 
of  the  Egyptian  magicians  during  the  plagues  in  Egypt. 

Mr.  Farmer's  satisfactory  reply 250 

SECTION  I. — Infidels  assert  that  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
fire  is  a  fiction.  The  assertion  considered  and  answered. — 
The  assertion  that  the  Israelites  crossed  the  Red  Sea  at 
Suez.  Vindication  of  the  Scriptural  account.  Assertion 
that  the  tremendous  scene  upon  Sinai  was  a  cheat.  Its 
fallacy.  Olmsted's  objection  founded  on  the  length  of  time 
the  Israelites  were  in  the  wilderness.  Explanation  of  the 
design  of  the  dealings  of  Jehovah  with  the  Israelites. 
Vindication  of  the  dresses,  rites,  and  customs  enjoyed  by 
the  ceremonial  law.  Objection  founded  on  the  repeated 
apostacies  of  the  Israelites.  The  objection  considered  and 
answered.  The  objection  founded  on  the  treatment  of  the 
Moabites  and  the  Midianites.  Considered  and  answered. — 
Objection,  on  the  ground  that  the  Israelites  were  com 
manded  to  exterminate  the  Canaanites.  Considered  and 
answered. — Assertion  that  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures 
sanction  adultery  and  murder.  Its  falsehood. — Assertion 
that  Jehovah  kept  false  prophets,  and  violated  his  promises. 
Mr.  Home's  answer. — Objection  founded  on  the  speaking 
of  Balaam's  ass.  Considered  and  answered.  Mr.  Paine's 
objection  on  the  ground  that  the  sun  is  represented  as 
standing  still  upon  Mt.  Gibeon.  Vindication  of  the  Scrip 
tural  account  of  that  miraculous  event.  Dr.  Clarke's  very 
satisfactory  reply  to  the  objection.  Objection  founded  on 
the  passage,  "  Isaiah  the  prophet  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and 
he  brought  the  shadow  ten  degrees  backward  by  which  it 
had  gone  down  on  the  dial  of  Ahaz." — Objection  founded 
on  what  is  said  of  the  Witch  of  Endor.  Considered  and 
answered 275 


VOLUME  II 

THE  GENUINENESS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES 
CHAPTER  I 

The  books  of  the  New  Testament  written  by  eight  Jews. — 
Why  called  New  Testament  ?  Infidels  deny  the  genuineness 
of  the  books. — Hold  that  the  writers  were  impostors,  and 


APPENDICES  369 

the  religion  taught  in  them  a  fraud  practiced  upon  man 
kind.  The  difficulties  attending  the  examination  of  the  claims 
of  the  New  Testament  to  genuineness  and  credibility. — 
How  the  subject  should  be  approached. — The  denial  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  books  of  modern  dates.  Toland  charged 
with  having  betrayed  his  suspicion  that  the  writings  were 
forgeries.  The  suspicion  of  an  anonymous  Italian. — Its 
absurdity. — Gibbon  acknowledges  the  genuineness  of  the 
writings. — Volney  lays  it  down  as  a  clear  case,  that  no  such 
person  as  Jesus  Christ  ever  existed.  His  theory  adopted, 
defended,  and  extensively  circulated  by  Taylor.  His  posi 
tions  defined  in  his  manifesto. — His  unblushing  falsehoods 
promptly  met  and  refuted  by  English  Divines.  Hitherto 
unanswered  in  this  country. — His  first  and  second  proposi 
tions  taken  up. — How  the  authorship  which  has  no  name 
prefixed  to  it  is  to  be  ascertained.  The  rule  applied  to  the 

New  Testament 3 

SECTION  I. — Marks  given  by  Michaelis  by  which  the 
spuriousness  of  a  book  may  be  discovered. — How  books 
anciently  found  their  way  to  the  public.  The  congregations 
before  whom  the  original  copies  of  the  New  Testament 
were  read,  vouchers  of  their  genuineness. — The  ancient  ad 
versaries  of  Christianity  admitted  the  genuineness  of  the 
writings.  The  testimony  of  Trypho,  the  Jew.  The  testi 
mony  of  Celsus.  The  writings  of  Celsus  against  Chris 
tianity  of  great  value  in  enabling  the  advocate  of  Revela 
tion,  of  the  present  day,  to  prove  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
son  of  God.  The  testimony  of  Porphyry.  Testimony  of 
Hierocles,  the  philosopher. — Testimony  of  the  emperor 
Julian.  Testimony  of  Taylor  himself.  The  quotations 
from  the  New  Testament  by  the  most  virulent  enemies  of 
Christianity  of  ancient  times.  Demonstrate  the  genuine 
ness  of  the  writings. — The  immediate  disciples  of  the 
apostles  acknowledge  the  genuineness  of  the  books.  The 
epistles  of  the  Apostolic  fathers.  Their  genuineness  un 
questionable.  These  writings  prove  the  genuineness  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  epistles  of  Barnabas  written  shortly 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  Table  illustrating  that 
the  New  Testament  writings  were  extant  when  Barnabas 
wrote,  or,  at  least,  that  he  was  conversant  with  some  of 
the  writers  of  the  book.  The  epistle  of  Clement,  when  and 
to  whom  written.  Table  exhibiting  quotations  from  the 
New  Testament  in  the  epistle  of  Clement.  Writings  of 
Hermas;  when  written.  Table  exhibiting  the  quotations  of 
Hennas  from  the  New  Testament.  Ignatius,  when  he 


370  APPENDICES 

flourished.  Table  of  his  quotations  from  the  New  Testa 
ment.  Polycarp,  the  friend  of  the  apostle  John.  Table  of 
his  quotations  from  the  New  Testament.  Summing  up  of 
the  testimony  of  the  apostolic  fathers. — Ignatius  and  Poly- 
carp  seal  their  testimony  with  their  blood. — Martyrdom  of 

Polycarp 13 

SECTION  II. — Papias  ascribes  two  gospels  to  Matthew 
and  Mark.  Testimony  of  Justin,  of  Irenaenus,  of  Ter- 
tullian,  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  Table  of  quotations  by 
these  witnesses.  Testimony  of  Origen:  His  quotations 
from  the  New  Testament.  Testimony  of  Eusebius  and 
Jerome. — Number  and  antiquity  of  the  manuscripts  of  the 
New  Testament.  An  argument  for  the  genuineness  of  its 
books.  Curious  discovery  which  confirms  the  genuineness 
of  the  New  Testament  writings. — The  council  of  Laodicea 
did  not  design  to  settle  the  Canon  .  .  .  .  .  .67 

CHAPTER  II 

ON  THE  GENUINENESS  OF  THE  BOOKS. — Mr.  Taylor's  arguments 
to  prove  that  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  are  spuri 
ous.  Exposure  of  his  dishonesty  in  quoting  from  Dr. 
Lardner.  Mr.  P.  Smith's  refutation  of  his  allegation  that 
the  Scriptures  were  altered  by  the  Emperor  Anastasius. 
Exposure  of  his  dishonesty  in  quoting  from  Beausobre. 
Refutation  of  his  allegation  that  the  Scriptures  were  altered 
by  Lanfranc.  Refutation  of  his  argument  drawn  from  the 
various  readings.  The  passage  of  the  Unitarian  New 
Version  cited  by  Mr.  Taylor  in  support  of  his  allegation. 
Dr.  Bentley  on  the  various  readings.  Gaussen  on  the 
various  readings.  Tables  illustrative  of  the  various  read 
ings.  Trouble  of  Bengel  about  the  integrity  of  the  original 
text.  The  success  of  his  labors  in  sacred  criticism  .  .  84 

SECTION  I. — Taylor's  dishonesty  in  referring  to  the 
works  of  Herbert  Marsh,  in  support  of  his  allegation  that 
the  manuscript  from  which  the  received  text  was  taken  was 
stolen  from  the  librarian.  Explanation  of  the  story  of  the 
sale  of  the  manuscript  to  a  skyrocket  maker.  Taylor's  false 
hood  in  his  pretended  reference  to  Bishop  Marsh,  in  support 
of  his  allegation  that  for  the  principal  passage  in  the  book  of 
Revelation  there  was  no  original  Greek.  Notice  of  Mr. 
Taylor's  charge  that  the  tendency  of  the  New  Testament  is 
immoral  and  wicked.  J.  J.  Rousseau's  testimony  to  the 
morality  of  the  Gospel.  Exposure  of  Mr.  Taylor's  dishon 
esty  in  quoting  from  Mosheim  in  support  of  his  allegation 


APPENDICES  371 

that  ecclesiastical  historians  admit  their  inability  to  show 
when  or  by  whom  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  were 
written.  Refutation  of  his  allegation.  The  Apocryphal 
books  collected  and  published  by  Jeremiah  Jones.  Refuta 
tion  of  Mr.  Taylor's  assertion  what  he  terms  the  true  and 
genuine  gospel.  Refutation  of  Mr.  Taylor's  objection  on 
the  ground  of  modernisms  contained  in  some  passages  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  the  ignorance  of  the  four  evan 
gelists  of  the  geography  and  statistics  of  Judea.  The 
summing  up  of  the  argument  on  the  genuineness  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures 107 

CHAPTER  III 

CREDIBILITY  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  SCRIPTURES. — The  number 
of  the  witnesses  who  testify  to  the  facts  detailed  in  the 
New  Testament.  How  the  credibility  of  a  historical  book 
is  to  be  ascertained.  The  rule  as  applied  to  Christian 
writings.  Their  genuineness  proves  their  credibility.  The 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  could  not  have  falsified  the 
facts  relative  to  Jesus  Christ.  The  objection  on  the  ground 
that  the  Jews  rejected  the  claims  of  Jesus  Christ.  Its  con 
futation.  The  conduct  of  the  Jewish  nation  in  rejecting 
Christ  accounted  for.  The  conversion  of  many  of  the 
Gentiles  proves  the  credibility  of  the  book.  The  character, 
circumstances,  and  conduct  of  the  men  who  testify  of 
Jesus  prove  their  credibility.  Difficulty  to  be  surmounted 
by  those  who  maintain  that  the  apostles  and  evangelists 
were  impostors.  Summing  up  of  the  argument  on  the 

credibility  of  the  witnesses 125 

SECTION  I. — Collateral  testimony  of  the  truthfulness  of 
the  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  Testimonies  to  the 
truthfulness  of  St.  Matthew's  statement  concerning  Herod 
and  Archalaus.  Testimony  to  the  truthfulness  of  the  state 
ment  of  Luke  concerning  Herod,  Tetrarch  of  Galilee,  and 
his  brother  Phillip,  Tetrarch  of  Itruria.  Testimony  to  the 
truthfulness  of  the  evangelists  relative  to  Herod  marrying 
Herodias.  Josephus  corroborates  Luke's  account  of  the 
death  of  Herod  Agrippa.  Testimonies  of  the  truthfulness 
of  the  statements  in  the  Acts  concerning  Felix.  A  number 
of  notices,  by  profane  authors,  of  Pilate,  confirmatory  of 
the  truthfulness  of  the  evangelists.  Testimonies  to  the 
truthfulness  of  the  evangelists  in  their  statements  of  the 
treatment  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  trial  and  when  crucified. 
Testimonies  confirming  statements  of  the  evangelists  con- 


372  APPENDICES 

cerning  the  burial  of  Jesus  Christ.  Notice  taken  of  John 
the  Baptist  by  Josephus.  What  he  says  concerning  Jesus 
Christ.  Notices  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  ancient  Jewish 
Talmudical  writings.  Testimony  of  the  heathen  adversary 
to  the  leading  facts  detailed  by  the  evangelists.  Summing 
up  of  the  argument 140 

SECTION  II. — The  same  ground  retraced,  and  the  ob 
jections  of  Mr.  Taylor  considered  and  answered.  Repre 
sentation  of  Taylor's  third  and  fourth  propositions.  The 
falsehood  of  Mr.  Taylor's  assertion  that  no  such  person  as 
Jesus  Christ  ever  existed,  proven  by  the  testimony  of 
Tacitus,  of  Suetonius,  of  Martial,  of  Pliny  the  Younger. 
Mr.  Taylor's  assertion  that  some,  many,  or  all,  of  the 
events  related  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  evangelists  had  for 
merly  been  related  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  Greece 
and  Rome.  Its  confutation  to  be  found  in  any  of  the 
Pantheons  or  mythological  dictionaries.  Exposure  of  the 
malignity  and  falsehood  of  Mr.  Taylor  exhibited  in  his 
attempt  to  identify  Jesus  Christ  with  the  heathen  idol 
Crishna.  Citations  from  Sir  W.  Jones  concerning  Crishna. 
The  testimony  of  Sir  W.  Jones  impartial.  The  unreason 
ableness  and  absurdity  of  Mr.  Taylor's  conclusions  .  .  164 

SECTION  III. — The  last  refuge  of  the  infidel  is  to  main 
tain  either  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  mistaken  enthusiast  or 
a  wicked  impostor.  Mr.  English's  argument  to  prove  that 
Jesus  was  a  mistaken  enthusiast.  Its  confutation  .  .  181 

SECTION  IV. — Argument  by  Mr.  Olmsted  to  prove  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  a  wicked  impostor.  Its  confutation  .  .  190 

CHAPTER  IV 

OBJECTIONS  STATED  AND  ANSWERED. — The  objections  urged  by 
infidels  of  such  a  nature  that,  though  numerous,  to  answer 
one  or  two  of  each  class  is  to  answer  all.  Quotation  from 
Gaussen,  explanatory  of  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  sup 
posed  contradictions  in  the  writings  of  the  evangelists.  Ex 
amples  by  Gaussen.  Explanation  of  the  seeming  contra 
dictions  between  the  genealogies  of  Matthew  and  Luke. 
Answer  to  the  objection,  that  certain  names  occur  in  Luke's 
list  of  the  apostles,  which  do  not  appear  in  that  of  Matthew. 
Answer  to  the  objection  on  account  of  the  seeming  contra 
diction  in  the  title  which  was  written  over  Jesus  Christ 
when  on  the  cross.  Answer  to  the  objection  founded  on 
the  seeming  contradiction  in  the  different  accounts  of  the 
hour  when  Jesus  Christ  was  suspended  on  the  cross.  An- 


APPENDICES  373 

swer  to  the  objection  urged  against  St.  Luke  when  he  says, 
"It  came  to  pass  in  those  days,  that  there  went  out  a 
decree  from  Caesar  Augustus  that  all  the  world  should  be 
taxed.  And  this  taxing  was  first  made  when  Cyrenius  was 
Governor  of  Syria."  Answer  to  the  objection  founded  upon 
Jesus  cursing  the  fig-tree.  Answer  to  Taylor's  assertion  that 
Romans  3 : 7  recommends  telling  lies  for  the  glory  of  God. 
His  assertion  that  Jesus  Christ  was  not  crucified.  Its  con 
futation.  His  assertion  that  "  Paul  and  Barnabas  did  not 
preach  the  same  story."  Its  falsehood  demonstrated.  His 
assertion  that  some  preached  a  Christ  who  was  not  crucified. 
Its  falsehood.  His  assertion  that  Paul  called  the  other 
apostles  false  apostles  and  dogs.  Vindication  of  the  apostles 
from  this  calumny.  His  assertions  that  Paul  curses  the  other 
apostles  and  recommends  that  they  should  be  privately 
assassinated.  The  falsehood  of  these  accusations.  The  last 
refuge  of  Mr.  Taylor  in  asserting  that  Christianity  had  its 
origin  among  the  Therapeutae.  Other  infidels  pretend  that 
the  Essenes  were  the  originators  of  Christianity.  Watson's 
account  of  the  Essenes  and  Therapeutae 214 


CHAPTER  V 

DIVINE  AUTHORITY  AND  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. — 
What  is  to  be  understood  by  inspiration?  None  but  an 
atheist  can  deny  its  possibilities.  The  gift  of  inspiration 
proved  by  the  performance  of  supernatural  works,  and  by 
the  foretelling  of  future  events  with  preciseness.  If  these 
signs  accompanied  the  authors  of  the  dispensations  con 
tained  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  Bible  is  a  revelation  from  God.  The  performance 
of  miracles  by  the  authors  of  these  dispensations  attests 
their  divine  mission.  A  miracle  defined.  Mr.  Hume's  argu 
ment  against  miracles.  Lord  Brougham's  confutation  of 
the  argument.  Keith's  demonstration  of  its  fallacy.  The 
miracles  of  Moses,  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles  accom 
panied  by  evidences  which  cannot  be  brought  to  substan 
tiate  any  pretended  fact  whatever.  Mr.  Leslie's  argument 
in  favor  of  this  position.  Mr.  Olmsted's  attempt  to  destroy 
the  force  of  Mr.  Leslie's  argument.  Exposure  of  the  mis 
representations  and  falsehoods  contained  in  Mr.  Olmsted's 
argument.  Confutation  of  his  argument  ....  232 

SECTION  I. — Mr.  Leslie's  criteria  applied  to  the  miracles 
recorded  in  the  Scriptures.  Applied  to  those  of  Moses ;  they 
all  meet  in  his  miracles.  Applied  to  those  of  Jesus  Christ 


374  APPENDICES 

and  his  apostles.  Their  number,  their  variety,  and  the 
public  manner  in  which  they  were  performed,  attest  their 
veracity.  Miracles  of  Christ  contrasted  with  those  of  im 
postors.  The  pretended  miracles  wrought  by  Vespasian. 
The  pretended  miracles  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  Many  of 
them  have  been  proved  to  be  impostors.  The  object  of 
the  miracles  of  Jesus  attests  their  veracity.  The  great 
miracle  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  Christianity,  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  miracle  examined. 
Testimony  of  the  evangelists,  that  Jesus  during  his  life  pre 
dicted  his  death  and  resurrection.  The  prediction  well 
known  to  the  Jewish  rulers.  The  rulers  took  every  neces 
sary  precaution  to  put  his  pretensions  to  the  test.  The 
crucifixion  and  death  of  Christ  well  attested.  Precautions 
that  the  body  should  not  be  removed  until  life  was  extinct. 
The  precautions  of  the  rulers  to  prevent  the  body  being 
stolen  out  of  the  sepulchre.  The  whole  question  at  issue 
between  Jesus  and  the  Jewish  rulers,  suspended  on  the  naked 
fact,  whether  He  did  or  did  not  rise  again  on  the  third 
day.  The  Jewish  rulers  make  their  preparation  on  the 
Sabbath  to  produce  the  body  on  the  third  day.  On  the 
third  day  the  body  is  missing.  Different  ways  of  ac 
counting  for  the  fact.  The  disciples  alleged  that  Jesus  had 
risen  from  the  dead.  Their  testimony  examined.  The 
Jewish  rulers  asserted  that  the  disciples  stole  the  body. 
The  allegation  examined.  Its  falsehood  demonstrated. 
Subsequent  conduct  of  the  Sanhedrin  confirms  the  testimony 
of  the  apostles  and  evangelists.  The  adoption  of  the  Jewish 
mode  of  accounting  for  the  fact  accompanied  with  many 
difficulties.  An  acknowledgment  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  involves  an  acknowledgment  of  His  divine  mission. 
Mr.  Olmsted's  objection  on  the  ground  that  Jesus  did  not 
show  Himself  publicly  and  ascend  to  heaven  in  the  presence 
of  the  whole  nation.  Its  fallacious  nature.  The  testimony 
we  have  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  much  more 
satisfactory  and  convincing  than  that  required  by  Mr. 
Olmsted.  Insuperable  difficulties  attending  the  denial  of 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ 279 


CHAPTER  VI 

Divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures  proved  from  prophecy  and 
its  fulfillment.  A  prophecy  defined.  Mr.  Watson's  argu 
ment  in  support  of  the  possibility  of  prophecy.  Criteria  by 
which  true  may  be  distinguished  from  false  prophecies. 


APPENDICES  375 

The  prophecies  of  heathen  oracles  examined.  Proved  to 
have  been  impostures.  Contrast  between  the  pretended  pre 
dictions  of  the  heathen  oracles  and  the  prophecies  contained 
in  the  Scriptures.  Mr.  Paine's  remarks  in  relation  to  the 
manner  in  which  future  events  would  be  communicated  by 
a  true  prophet.  Mr.  Olmsted's  requisition  and  pledge  if  it 
be  met  to  acknowledge  the  truth  of  prophecy.  Mr.  Olmsted 
met  upon  his  own  ground.  Prophecy  relative  to  the  de 
struction  of  Tyre.  Its  fulfillment  proved  by  the  infidel 
Volney,  and  other  competent  witnesses.  Mr.  Olmsted, 
from  his  own  showing,  is  bound  to  believe  that  Ezekiel 
was  a  true  prophet  of  God.  Table  of  quotations  from  the 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  from  Volney's  writ 
ings,  showing  that  in  spite  of  himself  this  infidel  proves  the 
truthfulness  of  the  seers  of  Israel.  Mr.  Olmsted's  assertion 
that  the  history  of  Isaiah  is  made  up  of  scraps,  and  destitute 
of  order  and  meaning.  The  truth  of  the  assertion  tested. 
Prophecy  of  Isaiah  concerning  Edom.  Volney's  testimony 
of  its  fulfillment.  Testimony  of  Mr.  Stevens.  Prophecy 
of  Jeremiah  concerning  the  capital  of  Edom.  Burchkhardt's 
testimony  of  its  fulfillment.  Testimony  of  Captains  Irby 
and  Mangles.  Testimony  of  Mr.  Stevens.  The  infidel 
having  been  met  on  his  own  ground,  and  the  fulfillment  of 
many  prophecies  proved  by  competent  witnesses,  it  follows 
that  the  seers  of  Israel  were  the  true  prophets  of  God  .  302 

SECTION  I. — The  great  theme  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophets  was  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  The  Christian 
maintains  that  these  prophecies  found  an  accomplishment  in 
Christ.  This  denied  by  the  Jew  and  the  infidel.  Mr.  Eng 
lish's  argument  to  show  that  Jesus  was  not  the  Messiah. 
First,  on  account  of  His  genealogy,  and,  second,  because  the 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  found  no  accomplishment 
in  Him.  Mr.  English's  argument  refuted  in  all  its  par 
ticulars.  Jesus  proved  to  be  the  true  Messiah.  The  Mes- 
siahship  of  Jesus  Christ  being  proved,  it  proves  that  the 
Bible  is  a  revelation  from  God.  Closing  address  .  .  .  324 


APPENDIX 
Starkie's  confutation  of  Hume's  argument  on  evidence      .       .     362 


APPENDIX  VIII 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  CHURCHES 
By  JOHN  G.  NICOLAY  AND  JOHN  HAY 

NOTE. — Some  of  the  important  material  bearing  upon  Lincoln's  re 
ligious  convictions  which  was  collected  by  Nicolay  and  Hay  and  pub 
lished  in  the  Century  Magazine,  has,  through  faulty  indexing,  been 
almost  lost.  The  words  "  churches  "  and  "  religion  "  are  not  in  the  thick 
index  in  the  tenth  volume  of  their  great  work.  Finding  in  the  Century 
Magazine  for  August,  1889,  an  important  article  on  this  subject,  I  searched 
in  vain  for  any  way  of  finding  it  in  the  book  by  means  of  the  index, 
and  two  librarians,  working  in  separate  libraries,  searched  for  it  and 
reported  to  me  that  it  was  not  in  the  book.  I  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  in  the  editing  of  the  work  for  its  publication  in  book  form,  the  two 
former  secretaries  of  the  President  had  deemed  some  of  this  matter  too 
personal  for  their  title,  "Abraham  Lincoln:  a  History."  But  I  have 
discovered  the  missing  passage  in  the  sixth  volume,  pages  314-342.  Its 
testimony  is  in  full  accord  with  that  subsequently  given  by  Mr.  Hay 
in  the  address  delivered  by  him  from  Mr.  Lincoln's  old  pew,  which  is 
printed  in  the  volume  of  John  Hay's  addresses.  The  article  in  the 
Century  is  so  important  that  the  first  and  last  portions  of  it  will  justify 
reprinting  here.  The  omitted  portions  relate  to  the  relations  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  of  the  Government  to  particular  churches  or  denominations. 

W.  E.  B. 

IN  a  conflict  which  was  founded  upon  the  quickened  moral  sense 
of  the  people  it  was  not  strange  that  the  Government  received  the 
most  earnest  support  from  the  churches.  From  one  end  of  the 
loyal  States  to  the  other  all  the  religious  organizations,  with  few 
exceptions,  moved  by  the  double  forces  of  patriotism  and  religion, 
ranged  themselves  upon  the  side  of  the  Government  against  the 
rebellion.  A  large  number  of  pulpits  in  the  North  had  already 
taken  their  places  as  tribunes  for  the  defense  of  popular  freedom, 
and  it  was  from  them  that,  at  the  menace  of  war,  the  first  cry  of 
danger  and  of  defiance  rang  out.  Those  ministers  who  had  for 
years  been  denouncing  the  encroachments  of  slavery  did  not  wait 
for  any  organized  action  on  the  part  of  their  colleagues,  but  pro 
claimed  at  once  in  a  thousand  varying  tones  that  peace  was  "  a 
blessing  worth  fighting  for."  The  more  conservative  churches 
were  but  little  in  the  rear  of  the  more  advanced.  Those  who  had 
counseled  moderation  and  patience  with  the  South  on  account  of 

377 


378  APPENDICES 

the  divided  responsibility  for  slavery  which  rested  on  both  halves 
of  the  nation  speedily  felt  the  sense  of  release  from  the  obliga 
tions  of  brotherhood  when  the  South  had  repudiated  and  re 
nounced  them,  and  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  insulted  flag  with 
an  earnestness  not  less  ardent,  and  more  steadily  trustworthy, 
than  that  of  the  original  antislavery  clergy.  As  the  war  went 
on,  and  as  every  stage  of  it  gave  a  clearer  presage  of  the  coming 
destruction  of  slavery,  the  deliverances  of  the  churches  became 
every  day  more  and  more  decided  in  favor  of  the  national  cause 
and  the  downfall  of  human  bondage.  To  detail  the  thousand 
ways  in  which  the  churches  testified  their  support  of  the  national 
cause,  to  give  even  an  abstract  of  the  countless  expressions  of 
loyalty  which  came  from  the  different  religious  bodies  of  the 
country,  would  occupy  many  volumes ;  we  can  only  refer  briefly 
to  a  few  of  the  more  important  utterances  of  some  of  the  great 
religious  societies. 

In  all  the  church  conventions  which  met  after  the  President's 
preliminary  proclamation  of  the  22d  of  September,  1862,  that 
act  of  liberation  was  greeted  with  the  heartiest  expressions  of 
approval  and  support. 

As  the  national  authority  began  to  be  reestablished  throughout 
the  States  in  rebellion,  not  the  least  embarrassing  of  the  questions 
which  generals  in  command  were  called  upon  to  decide  was  that 
of  the  treatment  of  churches  whose  pastors  were  openly  or 
covertly  disloyal  to  the  Union.  There  was  no  general  plan 
adopted  by  the  Government  for  such  cases ;  in  fact,  it  was  impos 
sible  to  formulate  a  policy  which  should  meet  so  vast  a  variety 
of  circumstances  as  presented  themselves  in  the  different  regions 
of  the  South.  The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Church 
sent  down  some  of  their  ablest  ministers,  with  general  authority 
to  take  charge  of  abandoned  churches,  and  to  establish  in  them 
their  interrupted  worship.  The  mission  boards  of  other  denomi 
nations  took  similar  action,  and  the  Secretary  of  War1  gave 
general  orders  to  the  officers  commanding  the  different  depart 
ments  to  permit  ministers  of  the  gospel  bearing  the  commission 
of  these  mission  boards  to  exercise  the  functions  of  their  office 
and  to  give  them  all  the  aid,  countenance,  and  support  which 
might  be  practicable.  But  before  and  after  these  orders  there 
was  much  clashing  between  the  military  and  the  ecclesiastical  au 
thorities,  which  had  its  rise  generally  in  the  individual  tempera- 

1  March  10,  1864.    McPherson,  "  History  of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  522. 


APPENDICES  379 

ments  of  the  respective  generals  and  priests.  There  was  an  in 
stance  in  one  place  where  a  young  officer  rose  in  his  pew  and 
requested  an  Episcopal  minister  to  read  the  prayer  for  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  which  he  had  omitted.  Upon  the 
minister's  refusal  the  soldier  advanced  to  the  pulpit  and  led  the 
preacher,  loudly  protesting,  to  the  door,  and  then  quietly  return 
ing  to  the  altar  himself  read  the  prayer — not  much,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  to  the  edification  of  the  congregation.  General  Butler 
arrested  a  clergyman  in  Norfolk,  and  placed  him  at  hard  labor 
on  the  public  works  for  disloyalty  in  belief  and  action;  but  the 
President  reversed  this  sentence  and  changed  it  to  one  of  exclu 
sion  from  the  Union  lines.2  The  Catholic  Bishop  of  Natchez 
having  refused  to  read  the  prescribed  form  of  prayer  for  the 
President,  and  having  protested  in  an  able  and  temperate  paper 
against  the  orders  of  the  commanding  general  in  this  regard,  the 
latter  ordered  him  to  be  expelled  from  the  Union  lines,  although 
the  order  was  almost  immediately  rescinded.  General  Rosecrans 
issued  an  order  3  in  Missouri  requiring  the  members  of  religious 
convocations  to  give  satisfactory  evidence  of  their  loyalty  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  as  a  condition  precedent  to 
their  assemblage  and  protection.  In  answer  to  the  protestations 
which  naturally  resulted  from  this  mandate  he  replied  that  it 
was  given  at  the  request  of  many  loyal  church  members,  both  lay 
and  clerical;  that  if  he  should  permit  all  bodies  claiming  to  be 
religious  to  meet  without  question,  a  convocation  of  Price's 
army,  under  the  garb  of  religion,  might  assemble  with  impunity 
and  plot  treason.  He  claimed  that  there  was  no  hardship  in 
compelling  the  members  of  such  assemblages  to  establish  their 
loyalty  by  oath  and  certificate,  and  insisted  that  his  order,  while 
providing  against  public  danger,  really  protected  the  purity  and 
the  freedom  of  religion. 

In  the  course  of  these  controversies  between  secessionist  min 
isters  and  commanding  generals  an  incident  occurred  which  de 
serves  a  moment's  notice,  as  it  led  to  a  clear  and  vigorous 
statement  from  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his  attitude  in  regard  to  these 
matters.  During  the  year  1862  a  somewhat  bitter  discussion 
arose  between  the  Rev.  Dr.  McPheeters  of  the  Vine  Street 
Church  in  St.  Louis  and  some  of  his  congregation  in  regard  to 
his  supposed  sympathies  with  the  rebellion.  Looking  back  upon 
the  controversy  from  this  distance  of  time  it  seems  that  rather 

2  Report  of  Judge-Advocate  General,  April  30,  1864. 

3  March  7,  1864. 


380  APPENDICES 

hard  measure  was  dealt  to  the  parson;  for  although,  from  all 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  there  appears  little  doubt  that 
his  feelings  were  strongly  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,  he 
behaved  with  so  much  discretion  that  the  principal  offenses 
charged  against  him  by  his  zealous  parishioners  were  that  he 
once  baptized  a  small  rebel  by  the  name  of  Sterling  Price,  and 
that  he  would  not  declare  himself  in  favor  of  the  Union.  The 
difference  in  his  church  grew  continually  more  flagrant  and  was 
entertained  by  interminable  letters  and  statements  on  both  sides, 
until  at  last  the  provost-marshal  intervened,  ordering  the  arrest 
of  Dr.  McPheeters,  excluding  him  from  his  pulpit,  and  taking  the 
control  of  his  church  out  of  the  hands  of  its  trustees.  This  action 
gave  rise  to  extended  comment,  not  only  in  Missouri,  but  through 
out  the  Union.  The  President,  being  informed  of  it,  wrote* 
to  General  Curtis  disapproving  the  act  of  the  provost-marshal, 
saying,  in  a  terse  and  vigorous  phrase,  which  immediately  ob 
tained  wide  currency,  "  The  United  States  Government  must  not, 
as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run  the  churches.  When  an  indi 
vidual  in  a  church,  or  out  of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the  public 
interest  he  must  be  checked;  but  let  the  churches,  as  such,  take 
care  of  themselves."  But  even  this  peremptory  and  unmistak 
able  command  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  discussion.  Taking 
the  hands  of  the  Government  away  from  the  preacher  did  not 
quench  the  dissensions  in  the  church,  nor  restore  the  pastor  to  the 
position  which  he  occupied  before  the  war;  and  almost  a  year 
later  some  of  the  friends  of  Dr.  McPheeters  considered  it  neces 
sary  and  proper  to  ask  the  intervention  of  the  President  to 
restore  to  him  all  his  ecclesiastical  privileges  in  addition  to  the 
civil  rights  which  they  admitted  he  already  enjoyed.  This  the 
President,  in  a  letter 5  of  equal  clearness  and  vigor,  refused  to  do. 
"  I  have  never  interfered,"  he  said,  "  nor  thought  of  interfering, 
as  to  who  shall,  or  shall  not,  preach  in  any  church;  nor  have  I 
knowingly  or  believingly  tolerated  anyone  else  to  so  interfere  by 
my  authority  " ;  but  he  continues,  "  If,  after  all,  what  is  now 
sought  is  to  have  me  put  Dr.  McPheeters  back  over  the  heads 
of  a  majority  of  his  own  congregation,  that  too  will  be  declined. 
I  will  not  have  control  of  any  church  on  any  side."  The  case 
finally  ended  by  the  exclusion  of  Dr.  McPheeters  from  his  pul 
pit  by  the  order  of  the  presbytery  having  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  the  case. 

In  this  wise  and  salutary  abstention  from  any  interference 

4  Jan.  2,  1863. 
6  Dec.  22,  1863. 


APPENDICES  381 

with  the  churches,  which  was  dictated  by  his  own  convictions  as 
well  as  enjoined  by  the  Constitution,  the  President  did  not  always 
have  the  support  of  his  subordinates.  He  had  not  only,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  administer  occasional  rebukes  to  his  over-zealous 
generals,  but  even  in  his  own  Cabinet  he  was  sometimes  com 
pelled  to  overrule  a  disposition  to  abuse  of  authority  in  things 
spiritual.  Several  weeks  after  he  had  so  clearly  expressed  him 
self  in  the  McPheeters  case,  he  found,  to  his  amazement,  that 
the  Secretary  of  War  had  been  giving  orders  virtually  placing 
the  army  in  certain  places  at  the  disposition  of  a  Methodist 
bishop  for  the  enforcement  of  his  ecclesiastical  decrees.  He 
addressed  to  Mr.  Stanton  a  note  of  measured  censure,' 
which  was  followed  by  an  order  from  the  War  Depart 
ment  explaining  and  modifying  the  more  objectionable  features 
of  the  former  document.  The  Secretary  explained  that  his  ac 
tion  had  no  other  intention  than  to  furnish  "  a  means  of  rallying 
the  Methodist  people  in  favor  of  the  Union,  in  localities  where 
the  rebellion  had  disorganized  and  scattered  them."  7  This  ex 
planation  was  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  President,  but  he 
thought  best  to  make  no  further  public  reference  to  the  matter. 
Scarcely  was  this  affair  disposed  of  when  a  complaint  was  re 
ceived  from  Memphis  of  some  interference  by  the  military  with 
a  church  edifice  there.  Mr.  Lincoln  made  upon  the  paper  this 
peremptory  indorsement:  "If  the  military  have  military  need  of 
the  church  building,  let  them  keep  it;  otherwise,  let  them  get 
out  of  it,  and  leave  it  and  its  owners  alone,  except  for  the  causes 
that  justify  the  arrest  of  anyone." 8  Two  months  later  the  Presi 
dent,  hearing  of  further  complications  in  the  case,  made  still 
another  order,  which  even  at  the  risk  of  wearying  the  reader 
we  will  give,  from  his  own  manuscript,  as  illustrating  not  only 
his  conscientious  desire  that  justice  should  be  done,  but  also  the 
exasperating  obstacles  he  was  continually  compelled  to  sur 
mount,  in  those  troubled  times,  to  accomplish,  with  all  the  vast 
powers  at  his  disposition,  this  reasonable  desire. 

6  "  After  having  made  these  declarations  in  good  faith  and  in  writing, 
you  can  conceive  of  my  embarrassment  at  now  having  brought  to  me 
what  purported  to  be  a  formal  order  of  the  War  Department,  bearing 
date  November  30,  1863,  giving  Bishop  Ames  control  and  possession  of 
all    the    Methodist   churches    in    certain    Southern    military    departments 
whose  pastors  have  not  been  appointed  by  a  loyal  bishop  or  bishops,  and 
ordering  the  military  to  aid  him  against  any  resistance  which  may  be 
made  to  his  taking  such  possession  and  control.     What  is  to  be  done 
about  it?"     [Lincoln  to  Stanton,  MS.,  Feb.  n,  1864.] 

7  Lincoln  to  Hogan,  Feb.  13,  1864. 

8  Lincoln  MS.,  March  4,  1864. 


382  APPENDICES 

"  I  am  now  told  that  the  military  were  not  in  possession  of 
the  building;  and  yet  that  in  pretended  execution  of  the  above 
they,  the  military,  put  one  set  of  men  out  of  and  another  set  into 
the  building.  This,  if  true,  is  most  extraordinary.  I  say  again, 
if  there  be  no  military  need  for  the  building,  leave  it  alone,  neither 
putting  anyone  in  or  out  of  it,  except  on  finding  someone  preach 
ing  or  practicing  treason,  in  which  case  lay  hands  upon  him, 
just  as  if  he  were  doing  the  same  thing  in  any  other  building,  or 
in  the  streets  or  highways."  9 

He  at  last  made  himself  understood  and  his  orders  respected ; 
yet  so  widespread  was  the  tendency  of  generals  to  meddle  with 
matters  beyond  their  jurisdiction,  that  it  took  three  years  of  such 
vehement  injunctions  as  these  to  teach  them  to  keep  their  hands 
away  from  the  clergy  and  the  churches. 

Lincoln  had  a  profound  respect  for  every  form  of  sincere 
religious  belief.  He  steadily  refused  to  show  favor  to  any  par 
ticular  denomination  of  Christians;  and  when  General  Grant  is 
sued  an  unjust  and  injurious  order  against  the  Jews,  expelling 
them  from  his  department,  the  President  ordered  it  to  be  revoked 
the  moment  it  was  brought  to  his  notice.10 

He  was  a  man  of  profound  and  intense  religious  feeling.  We 
have  no  purpose  of  attempting  to  formulate  his  creed ;  we  ques 
tion  if  he  himself  ever  did  so.  There  have  been  swift  witnesses 
who,  judging  from  expressions  uttered  in  his  callow  youth,  have 
called  him  an  atheist,  and  others  who,  with  the  most  laudable 
intentions,  have  remembered  improbable  conversations  which 
they  bring  forward  to  prove  at  once  his  orthodoxy  and  their  own 
intimacy  with  him.  But  leaving  aside  these  apocryphal  evidences, 
we  have  only  to  look  at  his  authentic  public  and  private  utter 
ances  to  see  how  deep  and  strong  in  all  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  was  the  current  of  his  religious  thought  and  emotion.  He 
continually  invited  and  appreciated,  at  their  highest  value,  the 
prayers  of  good  people.  The  pressure  of  the  tremendous  prob 
lems  by  which  he  was  surrounded;  the  awful  moral  significance 
of  the  conflict  in  which  he  was  the  chief  combatant;  the  over 
whelming  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  which  never  left  him 
for  an  hour — all  contributed  to  produce,  in  a  temperament  natu 
rally  serious  and  predisposed  to  a  spiritual  view  of  life  and  con 
duct,  a  sense  of  reverent  acceptance  of  the  guidance  of  a  Superior 

9  Lincoln  MS.,  May  13,  1864. 

10  War  Records,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  424,  530. 


APPENDICES  383 

Power.  From  that  morning  when,  standing  amid  the  falling 
snowflakes  on  the  railway  car  at  Springfield,  he  asked  the  prayers 
of  his  neighbors  in  those  touching  phrases  whose  echo  rose  that 
night  in  invocations  from  thousands  of  family  altars,  to  that 
memorable  hour  when  on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  he  humbled 
himself  before  his  Creator  in  the  sublime  words  of  the  second 
inaugural,  there  is  not  an  expression  known  to  have  come  from 
his  lips  or  his  pen  but  proves  that  he  held  himself  answerable 
in  every  act  of  his  career  to  a  more  august  tribunal  than  any  on 
earth.  The  fact  that  he  was  not  a  communicant  of  any  church, 
and  that  he  was  singularly  reserved  in  regard  to  his  personal 
religious  life,  gives  only  the  greater  force  to  these  striking  proofs 
of  his  profound  reverence  and  faith. 

In  final  substantiation  of  this  assertion,  we  subjoin  two  papers 
from  the  hand  of  the  President,  one  official  and  the  other  private, 
which  bear  within  themselves  the  imprint  of  a  sincere  devotion 
and  a  steadfast  reliance  upon  the  power  and  benignity  of  an  over 
ruling  Providence.  The  first  is  an  order  which  he  issued  on  the 
i6th  of  November,  1864,  on  the  observance  of  Sunday: 

"  The  President,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
by  the  officers  and  men  in  the  military  and  naval  service.  The 
importance  for  man  and  beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the 
sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors,  a  becoming  defer 
ence  to  the  best  sentiment  of  Christian  people,  and  a  due  regard 
for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor  in  the  Army  and 
Navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict  necessity.  The  dis 
cipline  and  character  of  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer, 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled,  by  the  profanation  of  the 
day  or  name  of  the  Most  High.  '  At  this  time  of  public  distress 
[adopting  the  words  of  Washington  in  1776]  men  may  find 
enough  to  do  in  the  service  of  their  God  and  their  country  without 
abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and  immorality/  The  first  Gen 
eral  Order  issued  by  the  Father  of  his  Country  after  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  indicated  the  spirit  in  which  our  institutions 
were  founded  and  should  ever  be  defended.  '  The  General  hopes 
and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will  endeavor  to  live  and 
act  as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier,  defending  the  dearest  rights 
and  liberties  of  his  country/  "  1J- 

11  General  McDowell  used  to  tell  a  story  which  illustrates  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  Sabbatarian  feeling.  The  President  had  ordered  a  movement 
which  required  dispatch,  and  in  his  anxiety  rode  to  McDowell's  head- 


384  APPENDICES 

The  date  of  this  remarkable  order  leaves  no  possibility  for 
the  insinuation  that  it  sprung  from  any  political  purpose  or  in 
tention.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  just  been  re-elected  by  an  overwhelm 
ing  majority ;  his  party  was  everywhere  triumphant ;  his  own  per 
sonal  popularity  was  unbounded;  there  was  no  temptation  to 
hypocrisy  or  deceit.  There  is  no  explanation  of  the  order  except 
that  it  was  the  offspring  of  sincere  conviction.  But  if  it  may 
be  said  that  this  was,  after  all,  an  exoteric  utterance,  springing 
from  those  relations  of  religion  and  good  government  which  the 
wisest  rulers  have  always  recognized  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  people,  we  will  give  one  other  document,  of  which  nothing 
of  the  sort  can  be  said.  It  is  a  paper  which  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
in  September,  1862,  while  his  mind  was  burdened  with  the 
weightiest  question  of  his  life,  the  weightiest  with  which  this 
century  has  had  to  grapple.  Wearied  with  all  the  considerations 
of  law  and  of  expediency  with  which  he  had  been  struggling 
for  two  years,  he  retired  within  himself  and  tried  to  bring  some 
order  into  his  thoughts  by  rising  above  the  wrangling  of  men  and 
of  parties,  and  pondering  the  relations  of  human  government  to 
the  Divine.  In  this  frame  of  mind,  absolutely  detached  from  any 
earthly  considerations,  he  wrote  this  meditation.  It  has  never 
been  published.  It  was  not  written  to  be  seen  of  men.  It  was 
penned  in  the  awful  sincerity  of  a  perfectly  honest  soul  trying  to 
bring  itself  into  closer  communion  with  its  Maker. 

"  The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests  each  party 
claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God.  Both  may  be 
and  one  must  be  wrong.  God  cannot  be  for  and  against  the 
same  thing  at  the  same  time.  In  the  present  civil  war  it  is  quite 
possible  that  God's  purpose  is  something  different  from  the  pur 
pose  of  either  party ;  and  yet  the  human  instrumentalities,  work 
ing  just  as  they  do,  are  of  the  best  adaptation  to  effect  His  pur 
pose.  I  am  almost  ready  to  say  that  this  is  probably  true;  that 
God  wills  this  contest,  and  wills  that  it  shall  not  end  yet.  By 
His  mere  great  power  on  the  minds  of  the  now  contestants,  He 
could  have  either  saved  or  destroyed  the  Union  without  a  human 
contest.  Yet  the  contest  began.  And  having  begun,  he  could  give 
the  final  victory  to  either  side  any  day.  Yet  the  contest  proceeds." 

quarters  to  inquire  how  soon  he  could  start.  "  On  Monday  morning," 
said  McDowell ;  "  or,  by  pushing  things,  perhaps  Sunday  afternoon." 
Lincoln,  after  a  moment's  thought,  said,  "  McDowell,  get  a  good  ready 
and  start  Monday."  [Herman  Haupt,  MS.  Memoirs.] 


APPENDIX  IX 

The  following  brief  address  by  Mr.  Lincoln  appears  never  to  have 
been  published.  It  was  discovered,  just  as  this  book  was  going  to  press, 
by  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik,  who  hastened  to  send  it  to  me.  It  is  the  short 
hand  report  of  a  brief  address  delivered  by  Mr.  Lincoln  at  a  railroad 
junction  near  La  Fayette,  Indiana,  a  few  hours  after  he  had  left  Spring 
field  on  his  way  to  Washington,  Saturday,  February  n,  1860. 

W.  H.  B. 

When  I  first  came  to  the  west  some  forty-four  or  forty-five 
years  ago,  at  sundown  you  had  completed  a  journey  of  some 
thirty  miles,  which  you  had  commenced  at  sunrise;  and  you 
thought  you  had  done  well.  Now,  only  six  hours  have  elapsed 
since  I  left  my  home  in  Illinois,  where  I  was  surrounded  by  a 
large  concourse  of  my  fellow  citizens,  most  all  of  whom  I  could 
recognize;  and  I  find  myself  far  from  home,  surrounded  by  the 
thousands  I  now  see  before  me,  who  are  strangers  to  me.  Still 
we  are  bound  together,  I  trust,  in  Christianity,  civilization  and 
patriotism,  and  are  attached  to  our  country  and  our  whole  coun 
try.  While  some  of  us  may  differ  in  political  opinions,  still  we 
are  all  united  in  one  feeling  for  the  Union. 


385 


A  CONDENSED  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(The  bibliographical  notes  which  the  author  made  while  this  work 
was  in  preparation  reached  a  total  of  several  thousand.  From  these  he 
at  first  selected  about  five  hundred  titles,  being  practically  a  catalogue 
of  his  own  Lincoln  library,  a  list  of  books  about  Lincoln  which  he 
considered  worth  buying.  But  this  also  appeared  much  longer  than  was 
needed  for  the  purposes  of  this  book,  and  he  has  therefore  prepared 
this  shorter  list  of  books  bearing  more  directly  upon  the  subject  matter 
of  this  volume,  and  for  the  convenience  of  such  readers  as  are  unfamiliar 
with  the  literature  of  the  subject  he  has  added  comments  upon  some 
of  the  books  or  articles.) 

I.   LINCOLN'S  OWN   WRITINGS   AND  SPEECHES 

Abraham  Lincoln:  Complete  Works.  Edited  by  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.  In  Two  Volumes.  New  York:  The  Century  Company, 
1894- 

There  is  a  larger  edition  in  twelve  volumes,  with  some  additions,  and 
there  are  two  other  notable  collections,  both  of  them  good.  No  one  of 
these,  however,  is  entirely  complete ;  and  there  are  volumes  such  as  "  The 
Uncqllected  Letters  of  Lincoln"  edited  by  Gilbert  A.  Tracy  (Houghton 
MifHin  &  Co.,  1917)  which  supplement  the  "complete"  works.  Very 
nearly  everything  which  the  reader  requires,  however,  is  in  the  Nicolay 
and  Hay  work. 

II.   LIVES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Autobiography.  Facsimile  Reproduction  of  Autobiographical  Sketch 
written  by  Abraham  Lincoln  for  Jesse  W.  Fell  in  1860.  Published 
by  his  daughters  at  Normal,  111. 

The  Autobiography  of  Abraham  Lincoln.     Sketch   furnished  by  him  in 
1860  to  John  Locke  Scripps.    New  York:  Francis  D.  Tandy  Company, 
1905. 
This  and  the  preceding  item  contain  virtually  all  that  Lincoln  told 

the  public  about  himself. 

Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  John  Locke  Scripps.  1860.  Tribune  Tract 
No.  6.  Prepared  from  information  given  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  read 
and  approved  by  him  before  publication. 

"The  Wigwam  Edition."  The  Life,  Speeches  and  Public  Services  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Together  with  a  Sketch  of  Hannibal  Hamlin.  New 
York:  Rudd  and  Carleton,  1860. 

It  disputes  with  Scripps  the  honor  of  being  the  first  printed  life 
of  Lincoln,  and  is  of  great  interest  as  showing  how  little  was  known 
of  Lincoln  in  1860  apart  from  the  sketch  which  he  had  himself 
prepared. 

Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  J.  Q.  Howard,  Cincinnati:  Anderson, 
Gates  and  Wright,  1860.  With  pictures  of  the  Wigwam  on  the  back 
and  is  as  rare  and  desirable  as  the  real  "  Wigwam  Edition." 

387 


388  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  (of  Illinois).  With  a  Condensed  View  of  his 
Most  important  Speeches;  also  a  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Hannibal 
Hamlin  (of  Maine).  Authentic  edition.  By  J.  H.  Barrett.  Cincin 
nati:  Moore,  Wilstach,  Keyes  &  Co.,  1860. 

Lives  and  Speeches  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Hannibal  Hamlin.  Life  of 
Lincoln  by  W.  D.  Howells.  Life  of  Hamlin  by  John  L.  Hays.  Colum 
bus,  Ohio:  Follett,  Foster  and  Company,  1800. 

The  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Hon.  Abraham  Lincoln:  to  which  is 
added  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin  by  D.  W. 
Bartlett.  Authorized  edition.  New  York:  Derby  &  Jackson,  1860. 

Life  and  Public  Services  of  Hon.  Abraham  Lincoln  of  Illinois  and  Hon. 
Hannibal  Hamlin  of  Maine.  Boston :  Thayer  and  Eldridge,  1860. 

The  above  listed  campaign  biographies,  all  of  them,  except  the 
Wigwam  Edition,  based  directly  or  indirectly  upon  the  information 
furnished  first  to  Scripps,  and  then  to  other  biographers,  are  all  of 
remarkable  interest  as  showing  what  was  then  available  to  make  a  biogra 
phy  out  of,  and  what  various  biographers,  under  stress  of  the  campaign 
and  the  enterprise  of  publishers,  were  able  to  make  out  of  it. 

A  list  might  be  added  of  the  1864  campaign  biographies,  but  for 
the  present  purpose  they  are  unimportant,  as  also  are  the  first  that 
followed  his  death. 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  J.  G.  Holland.  Springfield,  Mass,, 
published  by  Gurdon  Bill,  1865.  By  far  the  best  life  of  Lincoln 
published  in  the  first  few  years  after  his  death,  and  noted  as  con 
taining  the  Bateman  interview,  which  gave  rise  to  the  controversy 
concerning  Lincoln's  religion. 

Life  and  Public  Services  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Together  With  State 
Papers.  By  Henry  J.  Raymond.  To  which  are  added  anecdotes  and 
reminiscences  of  Frank  B.  Carpenter.  New  York :  Derby  &  Miller, 
1865.  At  the  time  of  publication  this  was  the  best  life  of  Lincoln 
in  its  assembling  of  State  Papers  and  important  documents. 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  from  His  Birth  to  His  Inauguration  As 
President.  By  Ward  H.  Lamon.  Boston:  James  R.  Osgood  &  Com 
pany,  1872.  First  attempt  to  give  to  the  world  the  story  of  the 
"  real "  Lincoln  and  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  fate  a  man  may 
suffer  at  the  hands  of  his  friends.  Invaluable  in  its  material,  but 
with  shocking  bad  taste;  and  said  by  Herndon  to  have  been  written 
by  Chauncey  F.  Black. 

Brings  the  narrative  down  to  the  time  of  Lincoln's  inauguration 
and  was  intended  to  have  been  followed  by  a  second  volume,  but  was 
received  with  such  disfavor  that  the  concluding  volume  was  never 
issued. 

Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln  1847-1865.  By  Ward  Hill  Lamon. 
Edited  by  Dorothy  Lamon.  Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  and  Company, 
1895.  Second  Edition  of  the  Same,  with  Memoir  of  Ward  Hill 
Lamon  by  his  daughter,  Dorothy  Lamon  Teillard.  Washington,  D.  C. 
Published  by  the  editor,  1911. 

Herndon' s  Lincoln:  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  Etiam  in  minimis 
major.  The  History  and  Personal  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  By  William  H.  Herndon,  for  twenty  years  his  friend  and 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  389 

law  partner;  and  Jesse  William  Weik,  A.M.  Chicago,  New  York 
and  San  Francisco :  Belford,  Clarke  &  Co.,  publishers.  London : 
Henry  J.  Drane,  Lovells  Court,  Paternoster  Road.  3  volumes.  1889. 
Unexpurgated  first  edition. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  By  William  H. 
Herndon  and  Jesse  W.  Weik,  with  an  introduction  by  Horace  White. 
In  two  volumes.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1892. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  A  History.  By  John  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay.  In 
ten  volumes.  New  York:  The  Century  Co.,  1890.  First  edition. 

A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Condensed  from  Nicolay  and  Hay's 
Abraham  Lincoln:  A  History.  By  John  G.  Nicolay.  New  York: 
The  Century  Co.,  1906. 

Personal  Traits  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Helen  Nicolay.  New  York: 
The  Century  Company,  1912. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr.  In  two  volumes.  American 
Statesman  Series.  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton  Mifflin  &  Co., 
1893.  In  many  respects  the  best  short  life  of  Lincoln. 

The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Containing  many  unpublished 
documents  and  unpublished  reminiscences  of  Lincoln's  early  friends. 
By  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  assisted  by  J.  McCan  Davis.  New  York:  S.  S. 
McClure  Co.,  Limited,  1896. 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Drawn  from  original  sources.  By  Ida 
M.  Tarbell.  Two  volumes.  New  York:  The  Doubleday  &  McClure 
Co.,  1900. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  An  Essay.  By  Carl  Schurz.  Boston  and  New  York: 
Houghton  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1891. 

Lincoln  the  Leader:  and  Genius  for  Expression.  By  Richard  Watscxn 
Gilder.  Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1909. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  The  People's  Leader  in  the  Struggle  for  National 
Existence.  By  George  Haven  Putnam,  Litt.D.  New  York  and 
London :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1909. 

Lincoln,  Master  of  Men:  A  Study  in  Character.  By  Alonzo  Rothchild, 
Boston  and  New  York:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1906. 

Honest  Abe:  A  Study  in  Integrity.  By  Alonzo  Rothchild.  Boston  and 
New  York:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1917. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Rose  Strunsky.  New  York:  Macmillan  Company, 
1914. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Noah  Brooks.  Centennial  Edition.  G.  P.  Put 
nam's  Sons,  New  York, 


Abraham  Lincoln.    By  Henry  Bryan  Binns.    London :  J.  M.  Dent  &  Co., 
1007. 

Abraham  Lincoln.     By  Lord  Charnworth    (Godfrey  Rathbone  Benson). 
Henry  Holt  and  Company,  1907. 


390  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Latest  Light  on  Lincoln,  and  War  Time  Memories.  By  Ervin  Chapman, 
D.D.,  LL.D.  New  York:  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company,  1917. 

The  Everyday  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Frances  Fisher  Browne. 
Chicago:  Browne  &  Howell  Co.,  1913.  New  and  thoroughly  revised 
edition. 

The  True  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  William  Eleroy  Curtis.  Philadelphia 
and  London:  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  1903. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  The  Man  of  the  People.  By  Norman  Hapgood.  New 
York:  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1899. 

Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Compiled  in  most  part  from 
the  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  overthrow  of  slavery.  By 
Isaac  N.  Arnold.  New  York:  John  D.  Bachelder,  1869. 

The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Chicago:  A.  C. 
McClurg  &  Co.,  1901.  Twelfth  edition,  1916. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  The  True  Story  of  a  Great  Life.  By  William  O. 
Stoddard,  one  of  President  Lincoln's  private  secretaries  during  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  Revised  edition.  New  York:  Fords,  Howard 
&  Hulbert,  1896. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Charles  Carleton  Coffin.  New  York:  Harper  and 
Brothers,  1893. 

III.   EARLY   ILLINOIS   HISTORY 
A.  W.  Snyder  in  Illinois  1817-1842.    Virginia,  Illinois :  E.  Needham,  1906. 

Illinois  in  1818.    By  Solon  Justus  Buck.     Illinois  Centennial  Commission, 
Springfield,  1917. 

The  Centennial  History  of  Illinois.  Vol.  II.  The  Frontier  State,  1818- 
1848.  By  Theodore  Calvin  Pease.  Published  by  the  Illinois  Cen 
tennial  Commission,  1918,  Springfield,  Illinois. 

The  Lincoln  Illinois  Country.  By  Daniel  Kilham  Dodge.  The  Inde 
pendent. 

Pioneering:  An  Article  on  Lincoln  and  Herndon.  By  C.  H.  Dall.  Atlan 
tic  Monthly,  April,  1867. 

Lincoln  and  Salem:  Pioneers  of  Mason  and  Menard  Counties.  By  T.  G. 
Onstott.  Published  by  the  author,  Forest  City,  Illinois,  1902. 

Illinois.  An  address  delivered  before  the  faculty  and  students  of  the 
University  of  Illinois  on  Illinois  Day,  1911,  by  Clark  E.  Carr.  Illi 
nois  University  Press,  December  6,  1911. 

The  Illini:  A  Story  of  the  Prairies.  By  Clark  E.  Carr.  Chicago:  A.  C. 
McClurg  &  Co.  Issued  1904;  eighth  edition,  1916. 

My  Day  and  Generation.  By  Clark  E.  Carr.  Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.,  1908. 

Illinois:  Travel  and  Description,  1765-1865.  By  Solon  Justus  Buck. 
Springfield,  111.  Published  by  trustees  Illinois  State  Historical  Li 
brary,  1914. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  391 


IV.   LINCOLN'S  YOUTH 

Lincoln's  Boyhood.  By  Eleanor  Atkinson.  The  Narrative  of  an  Inter 
view  with  Dennis  Hanks  in  1889.  American  Magazine,  February, 
1908. 

In  the  Boyhood  of  Lincoln.  By  Hezekiah  Butterworth.  New  York:  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  1892. 

The  Boy  Lincoln.  By  W.  O.  Stoddard.  New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
1905. 

The  Pioneer  Boy.  By  William  M.  Thayer.  Boston:  Walker  and  Wise 
Company,  1863. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Boy  and  the  Man.  By  James  Morgan.  New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1907. 

The  Education  of  Lincoln.  By  Hamilton  W.  Mabie.  The  Outlook, 
February  20,  1904. 

Lincoln's  Self -Education.  By  Hamilton  Wright  Mabie.  The  Chautau- 
quan,  April,  1900. 

Lincoln's  Alma  Mater.    By  Eleanor  Atkinson.    Harper's,  May,  1913. 

V.   LINCOLN'S  LOVE  AFFAIRS  AND  DOMESTIC  RELATIONS 

Abraham  Lincoln;  Miss  Ann  Rutledge;  New  Salem;  Pioneering;  The 
Poem.  A  lecture  delivered  in  the  old  Sangamon  court  house,  Novem 
ber,  1866,  by  William  H.  Herndpn,  Springfield,  111.  H.  E.  Barker, 
1910.  Edition  limited  to  150  copies. 

Lincoln's  Love  Story.  By  Eleanor  Atkinson.  New  York:  Doubleday, 
Page  &  Co.,  1909. 

Abraham  Lincoln  in  His  Relations  to  Women.  By  Julien  Gordon.  The 
Cosmopolitan,  December,  1894. 

Lincoln's  Marriage.  Newspaper  interview  with  Mrs.  Frances  Wallace, 
September  2,  1895.  Privately  printed  by  H.  E.  Barker,  Springfield, 
1917.  Edition  limited  to  75  copies.  Denies  that  more  than  one  date 
was  ever  set  for  the  Lincoln  wedding. 

The  Truth  About  Mrs.  Lincoln.  By  Howard  Glyndon.  The  Independent, 
August  10,  1882. 

Lincoln's  Home  Life  in  Washington.  By  Leslie  J.  Perry.  Harper's, 
February,  1897. 

VI.   EPOCHS  AND  ASPECTS  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  LINCOLN 

Personal  Recollections  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Henry  B.  Rankin. 
New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1916. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  H.  C.  Whitney.  The  Arena,  April,  1898.  Contains 
some  valuable  reminiscences  not  in  his  book. 


392  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln.    By  Major  Henry  C.  Whitney.    Boston: 
Estes  and  Lauriat,  1892. 

Lincoln  and  Herndon.     By  Joseph  Fort  Newton.     Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa: 
The  Torch  Press,  1910. 

Lincoln  in  Myth  and  in  Fact.     By  Dorothy  Lamon  Teillard.     World's 
Work,  February,   1911. 

Six  Months  in  the  White  House.    By  Frank  B.  Carpenter.    New  York: 
Hurd  &  Houghton,  1866.     First  edition. 

The  Inner  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln:  Six  Months  at  the  White  House. 
By  Frank  B.  Carpenter.    New  York  :  Hurd  &  Houghton,  1867. 

Lincoln  and  Seward.     By  Gideon  Welles.     New  York:   Sheldon  &  Co., 

1874. 

Diary  of  Gideon  Welles.    Atlantic  Monthly,  1909. 

Greeley  on  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Greeley's  Letters.  Edited  by  Joel  Benton. 
New  York:  The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co.,  1893. 

Lincoln  at  Gettysburg.  By  Clark  E.  Carr.  Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  & 
Co.,  1906. 

Gettysburg  and  Lincoln.  By  Henry  Sweetser  Burrage.  New  York: 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1906. 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address.  By  Orton  H.  Carmichael.  New  York:  The 
Abingdon  Press,  1917. 

Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg.  Report  of  the  Com 
mission  on  the  Gettysburg  Reunion.  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  1915. 

Recollections  of  Lincoln.  By  James  Grant  Wilson,  with  facsimiles  of  the 
Gettysburg  and  Second  Inaugural  Addresses.  Putnam's  Magazine, 
February,  1909. 

The  Gettysburg  Address  with  Facsimile  of  the  Manuscript.  By  John  G. 
Nicolay.  Century  Magazine,  1894. 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address.  By  Prof.  Philip  M.  Bikle  and  Rev.  H.  C. 
Holloway.  Lutheran  Church  Work,  February  10,  1916. 

Variations  in  the  Reports  of  the  Gettysburg  Address.  By  W.  H.  Lambert, 
The  Century  Magazine,  February,  1894. 

Gettysburg.    By  Elsie  Singmaster.    Boston :  Houghton  &  Mifflin  Co.,  1913. 

Lincoln  at  Gettysburg.  Address  delivered  before  the  Illinois  State  His 
torical  Society  at  Springfield,  111.,  January  25,  1906.  By  Clark  E.  Carr. 

Lincoln's  Masterpiece.  By  Isaac  Markens.  Published  by  the  author, 
274  W.  I40th  Street,  New  York. 

The  Perfect  Tribute.  By  Mary  Raymond  Shipman  Andrews.  New 
York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1907. 

Revised  Report  of  the  Select  Committee  on  the  Soldiers'  National  Ceme 
tery.  Together  with  the  Accompanying  Documents  as  Reported  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania. 
Harrisburg:  Hornsby,  Singerly  &  Myers,  State  Printers,  1865. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  393 

VII.   THE  DEATH   OF  LINCOLN 

The  Death  of  Lincoln.  By  Clara  E.  Laughlin.  New  York:  Doubleday, 
Page  &  Co.,  1909. 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln.  By  David  Miller  Dewitt.  New  York: 
The  Century  Co.,  1909. 

The  Assassination  of  Lincoln:  A  History  of  the  Great  Conspiracy. 
By  T.  M.  Harris,  a  member  of  the  commission  that  tried  the  con 
spirators.  Boston :  American  Citizen  Co.,  1892. 

Assassination  of  Lincoln.  By  Osborn  H.  Oldroyd.  Washington  D.  C, 
1901. 

Through  Five  Administrations.  By  William  H.  Crook.  Lincoln's  Body 
guard.  New  York:  Harper  &  Brother,  1910. 

Lincoln's  Last  Day.    By  William  H.  Crook.    Harper's,  September,  1907. 

VIII.   ANTHOLOGIES 

The  Lincoln  Memorial:  Album-Immortelles.  Collected  and  edited  by 
Osborn  H.  Oldroyd.  New  York:  G.  W.  Carleton  &  Co.,  1882. 

Poetical  Tributes  to  the  Memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Philadelphia: 
J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1865. 

The  Poets'  Lincoln:  Tributes  in  Verse  to  the  Martyred  President. 
Selected  by  Osborn  H.  Oldroyd.  Washington,  D.  C. :  Published  by 
the  editor  at  "The  House  Where  Lincoln  Died,"  1915. 

The  Praise  of  Lincoln:  An  Anthology.  Collected  and  arranged  by  A. 
Dallas  Williams.  Indianapolis:  The  Bobbs-Merrill  Co.,  1911. 

The  Book  of  Lincoln.  Compiled  by  Mary  Wright  Davis.  New  York: 
George  H.  Doran  Company,  1919. 

IX.   LINCOLN'S  LITERARY  STYLE 

Abraham  Lincoln  As  a  Man  of  Letters.  By  Luther  Emerson  Robinson 
M.A.  Chicago:  The  Reilly  &  Britton  Co.,  1918. 

Lincoln's  Literary  Experiments.  By  John  G.  Nicolay.  With  a  lecture  and 
verses  hitherto  unpublished.  Century  Magazine,  April,  1894. 

The  Evolution  of  Lincoln's  Literary  Style.  By  Prof.  Daniel  Kilham 
Dodge.  Champaign  and  Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1900. 

X.   THE  RELIGION  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

Religious  Views  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Compiled  and  published  by  Orrin 
Henry  Pennell.  The  R.  M.  Scranton  Co.,  Alliance,  Ohio,  1899. 

Brief  Analysis  of  Lincoln's  Character.  By  W.  H.  Herndon.  A  letter 
to  J  h.  Remsburg,  September  10,  1887.  Privately  printed  by  H.  E. 
Barker,  Springfield,  111.  Edition  limited  to  50  copies. 


394  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  Card  and  a  Correction.  A  Broadside  on  Lincoln's  religion.  By  W.  H. 
Herndon.  Privately  printed  by  H.  E.  Barker,  Springfield,  111.  Edition 
limited  to  75  copies. 


Lincoln  the  Christian.    By  William  J.  Johnson.    New  York  and 
Cincinnati:  The  Abingdon  Press,  1913. 

The  Later  Life  and  Religious  Sentiments  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Rev. 
James  A.  Reed.  Scribner's  Monthly,  1873,  pp.  333-344. 

Lincoln's  Religious  Belief.  By  B.  F.  Irwin.  Article  in  the  Illinois  State 
Journal  of  May  16,  1874.  Manuscript  copy. 

More  Testimony.  Letter  from  Hon.  William  Reid,  U.  S.  Consul  at 
Dundee,  Scotland.  Article  in  Portland  Oregonian,  March  4,  1874. 
Copied  in  Illinois  State  Journal.  Manuscript  copy. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  Religion.  By  Madison  C.  Peters.  Boston  :  Richard  G. 
Badger,  The  Gorham  Press,  1909. 

Lincoln  and  the  Church.  Article  by  John  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay  in 
Century,  August,  1889. 

The  Record  of  a  Quaker  Conscience.  By  Cyrus  Pringle.  New  York: 
Macmillan  Company,  1918  (Lincoln  and  the  Quakers). 

The  Conversion  of  Lincoln.  By  Rev.  Edward  L.  Watson,  New  York, 
Christian  Advocate,  November  n,  1909. 

The  Religious  Beliefs  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  R.  C.  Roper.  Article  in 
The  Open  Court. 

Lincoln's  Religious  Faith  and  Principles.  By  Thomas  D.  Logan,  D.D. 
The  Interior,  February  n,  1909. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  Address  delivered  in  Springfield,  February  12,  1909, 
and  reported  in  the  Springfield  Evening  Record  of  that  date  by 
Rev.  Thomas  D.  Logan,  D.D. 

Lincoln  Defamers  Refuted.  By  Henry  B.  Rankin.  Broadside  issued  for 
the  Lincoln  Day  celebration  at  Old  Salem,  February  12,  1919,  with 
author's  corrections  and  accompanying  autograph  letters. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  Cardinal  Traits:  A  Study  in  Ethics,  with  an  Epilogue 
Addressed  to  Theologians.  By  C.  S.  Beardslee.  Boston  :  Richard  G. 
Badger,  The  Gorham  Press,  1914. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  His  R-eligion.    By  Robert  N.  Reeves.    Chicago:  N.  D. 

The  Religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  George  A.  Thayer.  Cincinnati  : 
1909. 

Abraham  Lincoln  the  Preacher's  Teacher.  By  William  J.  Hutchins. 
Lecture  in  volume  on  "  The  Preacher's  Ideals  and  Inspirations." 
New  York:  Fleming  H.  Revell,  1917. 

Essay  on  Lincoln:  Was  He  An  Inspired  Prophet?  By  Milton  R.  Scott. 
Published  by  the  author,  Newark,  Ohio,  1906. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Charles  Henry  Fowler,  late  bishop  of  the  Metho 
dist  Episcopal  Church.  Leading  oration  in  volume  of  "  Patriotic  Ora 
tions."  New  York:  Eaton  &  Mains,  1910. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  395 

Lincoln's  Use  of  the  Bible.  By  S.  Trevena  Jackson.  New  York:  The 
Abingdon  Press,  1909. 

The  Agnosticism  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Lyman  Abbott.  The  Outlook, 
November  17,  1906. 

Lincoln's  Faith.  By  John  Hay.  Address  given  from  President  Lincoln's 
pew  in  the  New  York  Avenue  Church,  November  16,  1902.  In  John 
Hay's  addresses. 

The  Religious  Opinions  and  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  the  Rev. 
William  H.  Bates,  D.D.,  Washington,  D.  C,  1914. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  A  Lecture.  By  Robert  G.  Ingersoll.  New  York: 
C.  P.  Farrell,  1895. 

The  Religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Correspondence  between  General 
Charles  H.  T.  Collis  and  Colonel  Robert  G.  Ingersoll.  With  Appen 
dix,  containing  interesting  anecdotes  by  Major-General  Daniel  E. 
Sickles  and  Hon.  Oliver  S.  Munsell.  New  York:  G.  H.  Dillingham 
Company,  1890. 

Fifty  Years  in  the  Church  of  Rome.  By  Father  Chiniquy.  42nd  edition. 
Chicago:  The  Craig  Press,  1892.  Contains  interesting  account  of 
Lincoln's  service  as  Father  Chiniquy's  attorney  and  of  interviews 
at  the  White  House. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  Was  He  a  Christian?  By  James  E.  Remsburg.  Ex 
tended  chapter  in  "  Six  Historical  Americans."  New  York :  The  Truth 
Seeker  Co.  Extended  argument  to  prove  that  Lincoln  was  and 
continued  to  be  an  infidel. 

Was  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Spiritualist?  By  Mrs.  Nettie  Colburn  Maynard. 
Philadelphia:  Rufus  C.  Hartranft,  1891.  Contains  extraordinary 
claims  of  revelations  made  to  Lincoln  while  in  the  White  House  by 
a  trance  medium. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  Is  Right:  Spirit  Communication  a  Fact.  By  Grace 
Garrett  Durand.  Privately  printed,  Lake  Forest,  111.,  1917.  Contains 
alleged  revelations  from  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Abraham  Lincoln  a  Practical  Mystic.  By  Frances  Grierson.  New  York: 
The  John  Lane  Co.,  1918. 

Ths  Abraham  Lincoln  Myth.  By  Bocardo  Bramantip  (Oliver  Prince 
Buel).  New  York:  The  Mascot  Publishing  Co.,  1894.  A  reprint 
from  The  Catholic  World  of  November  and  December,  1893,  intended 
as  a  satire  upon  the  Higher  Criticism.  Apparently  suggested  by  the 
famous  essay  "  Historical  Doubts  Concerning  the  Existence  of 
Napoleon  Bonaparte." 

The  Mythifying  Theory;  or,  Abraham  Lincoln  a  Myth.  By  D.  B.  Turney. 
Metropolis,  111.  B.  O.  Jones,  Book  and  Job  Printer,  1872.  Photostat 
from  copy  in  Library  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 

XI.   LINCOLN   AND  TEMPERANCE. 

Lincoln's  First  Address  Delivered  in  Springfield,  February  22,  1842.  The 
Union  Signal. 


396  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  Discourse  on  the  Bottle:  Its  Evils  and  Its  Remedy.  By  Rev.  James 
Smith.  Sermon  delivered  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Spring 
field,  January  23,  1853.  Reprinted  1892.  A  surprisingly  straightfor 
ward  plea  for  legislative  prohibition,  printed  at  the  request  of  a 
committee  who  heard  it,  among  them  being  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Lincoln  a  Temperance  Man.  By  Howard  H.  Russell.  The  Interior, 
February  H,  1909. 

The  Lincoln  Legion.    By  Howard  H.  Russell,  Westerville,  Ohio,  1913. 

Lincoln  and  Temperance.  By  Rev.  Thomas  D.  Logan.  The  Advance, 
February  II,  1909. 

XII.   LINCOLN  AND  SLAVERY 

History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America.  By  Henry 
Wilson,  3  vols.  Third  edition.  Boston:  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co., 

1875. 

Lincoln  and  Slavery.  By  Albert  E.  Pillsbury.  Boston  and  New  York: 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1913. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  The  Evolution  of  His  Emancipation  Policy.  By  Paul 
Selby.  Chicago  Historical  Society,  1909. 

Anti-Slavery  History:  State  and  Nation.  By  Austin  Willey.  Portland, 
Maine:  Hoyt,  Fogg  &  Donham,  1886. 

The  Dred  Scott  Decision.    New  York:  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1857. 

The  Martyrdom  of  Elijah  P.  Love  joy.  By  H.  Tanner.  Chicago:  Fergus 
Printing  Co.,  1881. 

Dedication  of  Love  joy  Monument,  November  8,  1897.  Alton,  111. :  Charles 
Holden,  1897. 

The  Underground  Railroad.  By  William  M.  Cockrum.  Oakland  City, 
Ind. :  J.  W.  Cockrum  Printing  Co.,  1915. 

Lincoln,  Grant,  and  the  Freedmen.  By  John  Eaton.  New  York:  Long 
mans,  Green  &  Co.,  1907. 

The  Negro  a  Beast.  By  Charles  Carroll.  American  Book  and  Bible 
House,  St.  Louis,  1900. 

The  Journal  of  Negro  History.    Washington,  D.  C,  4  volumes  to  date. 

The  History  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Overthrow  of  Slavery.  By 
Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Chicago:  Clarke  &  Co.,  1866. 

XIII.   ATTACKS  ON  THE  CHARACTER  OF  LINCOLN 

The  Real  Lincoln.  From  the  testimony  of  his  contemporaries.  By 
Charles  L.  C.  Minor,  M.A.,  LL.D.  Second  edition,  revised  and 
enlarged.  Richmond,  Va. :  Everett  Waddey  Co.,  1904.  A  vicious 
assault  on  the  integrity  of  Lincoln. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  397 

Facts  and  Falsehoods  Concerning  the  War  on  the  South,  1861-1865.  By 
George  Edmonds  [Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Avery)  Merri wether].  Memphis, 
Term.  For  sale  by  A.  R.  Taylor  &  Co.,  1904.  Displays  the  most 
diligent  effort  in  the  compilation  of  items  derogatory  to  Lincoln  and 
the  North,  but  is  manifestly  dependent  upon  second  authorities  and 
in  some  cases  shows  marked  ignorance  of  the  original  sources  cited. 
Quotes  freely  from  an  imaginary  edition  of  Herndon,  alleged  to  have 
been  published  in  1866  and  suppressed. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Address  Delivered  Before  R.  E.  Lee  Camp,  No.  I, 
Confederate  Veterans  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  October  29,  1909.  By 
Hon.  Geo.  L.  Christian.  Second  edition.  Richmond:  L.  H.  Jenkins, 
Publisher.  Based  upon  the  historical  data  in  Minor's  Real  Lincoln 
and  Edmonds'  Facts  and  Falsehoods. 

Crimes  of  the  Civil  War  and  Curse  of  the  Funding  System.  By  Henry 
Clay  Dean.  Baltimore:  J.  Wesley  Smith  &  Brother,  1869.  Exces 
sively  scarce  and  most  pronounced  of  its  kind  of  literature.  De 
nounces  Lincoln  as  a  tyrant,  murderer,  and  inhuman  monster  and 
lauds  the  act  of  assassination  by  John  Wilkes  Booth. 

Confederate  Echoes.  By  A.  T.  Goodloe.  Publishing  House  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  1907. 

Lincoln  the  Rebel  Candidate.  Democratic  Campaign  Pamphlet  of  1864. 
Photostat  from  original  in  New  York  Public  Library. 


XIV.   LECTURES,   ADDRESSES,   AND  REMINISCENCES 

Abraham  Lincoln.  An  address  by  Hon.  Newton  Bateman,  LL.D.  Gales- 
burg,  111. :  The  Cadmus  Club,  1909. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Oration.  Delivered  on  Washington's  Birthday, 
1891,  by  William  Goodell  Frost.  Oberlin  News,  1891. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Oration.  By  John  E.  Burton.  Lake  Geneva,  Wis 
consin,  1903. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Address.  By  Frederick  A.  Noble.  Chicago,  Feb 
ruary  12,  1901. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  An  Essay.  By  Joseph  Fort  Newton.  The  Torch 
Press,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  1910. 

The  Mystery  of  Lincoln.    By  Robert  E.  Knowles.    The  Independent. 
The  Making  of  Lincoln.    Editorial  in  The  Outlook,  February  13,  1909. 

Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Distinguished  Men  of  His 
Time.  Collected  and  edited  by  Allen  Thorndike  Rice.  New  York: 
The  North  American  Review,  1888.  Separate  articles  by  thirty-three 
distinguished  contemporaries  of  Lincoln. 

Abraham  Lincoln:  Tributes  from  His  Associates.  Edited  by  William 
Hayes  Ward.  New  York:  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Co.,  1895.  Forty-five 
chapters  by  soldiers,  statesmen,  and  citizens  who  had  known  Lin 
coln. 


398  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Sermons  Preached  in  Boston  on  the  Death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Together 
with  the  Funeral  Service  in  the  East  Room  of  the  Executive  Mansion 
in  Washington.  Boston:  J.  E.  Tilton  &  Co.,  1865. 

Our  Martyred  President:  Lincoln  Memorial  Addresses.  The  Abingdon 
Press,  1915.  A  reprint  of  the  original  edition  containing  sermons 
by  New  York  ministers,  together  with  the  orations  of  George  Ban 
croft,  Bishop  Simpson,  and  Richard  S.  Storrs. 

Memorial  Addresses  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  February  12,  1866.  By  George  Bancroft. 
Washington:  Government  Printing  Office,  1866. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Some  Men  Who  Knew  Him.  Edited  by  Isaac  N. 
Phillips,  Bloomington,  111.,  Pantagraph  Co.,  1910. 

Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  a  Visit  to  California.  By 
Joshua  Fry  Speed,  Louisville,  1884. 

Eulogy  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Henry  Champion  Deming.  Before 
the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  Hartford,  June  8,  1865.  Hart 
ford:  A.  N.  Clark  &  Co.,  State  printers,  1865. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  An  address  before  the  Lincoln  League  Club  of 
Chicago,  in  the  Auditorium,  February  12,  1895.  By  Henry  Watterson. 

Lincoln.  By  Isaac  Newton  Phillips.  Reporter  of  Decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Illinois.  Chicago:  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.,  1910. 

The  Message  of  the  President  to  Congress.  First  message  of  Andrew 
Johnson  following  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  Washington,  1865. 

The  Promises  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Eulogy  on  Abraham 
Lincoln.  By  Charles  Sumner.  Boston :  J.  E.  Farwell  &  Co.,  1865. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Joseph  H.  Choate.  New  York:  T.  Y.  Crowell  & 
Co.,  1901. 

Abraham  Lincoln  Today.  By  William  Charles  Langdon,  Edmund  J. 
James,  and  Captain  Fernand  Baldensperger.  University  of  Illinois 
Press,  1918. 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  Boston  Corbett.  With  personal  recollections  of 
each.  John  Wilkes  Booth  and  Jefferson  Davis.  A  true  story  of  their 
capture.  By  Berkeley  Byron  Johnson.  Waltham,  Mass.:  Privately 
printed,  1914. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Phillips  Brooks.  A  sermon  preached  in  Philadel 
phia,  April  23,  1865. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  By  S.  Parkes  Cadman.  Address  before  the  New 
York  Republican  Club. 

Som-e  Impressions  of  Lincoln.     By  E.  S.  Nadal.     Scribner's,  1906. 

Life  and  Principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Hon.  Schuyler  Coif  ax. 
Philadelphia,  1865. 

The  Voice  of  the  Rod.  Funeral  sermon  by  the  Rev.  P.  D.  Gurley,  D.D. 
Washington,  1865. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  399 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  London  Punch.  By  William  S.  Walsh.  New 
York:  Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1909. 

Lincoln  and  Men  of  Wartime.  By  A.  K.  McClure.  Philadephia:  The 
Times  Publishing  Co.,  1892. 

Recollections  of  President  Lincoln  and  His  Administration.  By  L.  E. 
Chittenden.  New  York:  Harper  &  Brother,  1891. 

Personal  Reminiscences  Including  Lincoln  and  Others.  By  L.  E.  Chitten 
den.  New  York :  Richmond,  Croscup  &  Co.,  1893. 

Personal  Reminiscences  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  By  Thomas  Lowry.  Pri 
vately  printed,  Minneapolis,  1910. 

The  Footsteps  of  Lincoln.  By  J.  T.  Hobson.  Dayton,  Ohio :  The  Otter- 
bein  Press,  1909. 

The  Master  and  His  Servant.  A  comparison  of  the  incidents  of  Lincoln's 
life  with  that  of  Jesus.  By  J.  T.  Hobson.  United  Brethren  Pub 
lishing  House,  Dayton,  Ohio,  1913. 

The  Picture  and  the  Men.  Compiled  by  Fred  B.  Perkins.  A.  J.  Johnson, 
New  York,  1867. 

Inside  the  White  House  in  War  Times.  By  William  O.  Stoddard.  New 
York:  Charles  L.  Webster  &  Co.,  1890. 

Behind  the  Scenes.  By  Elizabeth  Keckley.  New  York:  G.  W.  Carleton 
&  Co.,  1868. 

Behind  the  Seams.     By  a  Nigger  Woman  Who  Took  in  Work  for  Mrs. 
Lincoln  and  Mrs.  Davis.     New  York:  The  National  News  Company, 
1868.     A  satire  on  Mrs.  Keckley's  Behind  the  Scenes.     Photostat  of 
copy  in  Library  of  Congress. 

XV.   BOOKS  WHICH   INFLUENCED  LINCOLN 
The  Holy  Bible. 

The  Elementary  Spelling  Book.  By  Noah  Webster.  New  York:  D. 
Appleton  &  Co. 

The  Life  of  George  Washington  with  Curious  Anecdotes.  By  W.  R. 
Weems.  Philadelphia:  Joseph  Allen,  1844. 

Pilgrim's  Progress.  By  John  Bunyan.  London :  Ward,  Lock  &  Co. 
Reprint  with  curious  old  cuts. 

ZEsop's  Fables.     Old  edition  with  curious  cuts.     Title  page  missing. 

The  English  Reader.  By  Lindley  Murray.  New  York:  Collins  &  Co., 
1832. 

The  Christian's  Defence.  Containing  a  fair  statement  and  impartial  ex 
amination  of  the  leading  objections,  urged  by  infidels  against  the 
antiquity,  genuineness,  credibility,  and  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures  ;  enriched  with  copious  extracts  from  learned  authors.  Two 
volumes  in  one.  Volume  I,  The  Old  Testament,  pp.  312;  Volume  II, 
The  New  Testament,  pp.  364,  Cincinnati:  J.  A.  James,  1843. 


400  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation.  London:  George  Rutledge 
&  Sons,  1890.  American  agents,  E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  New  York. 
Reprint  of  the  first  edition,  issued  in  1844. 

Second  American  edition  of  the  same,  with  an  introduction  by 
Rev.  George  B.  Cheever,  D'.D.  New  York:  Wiley  &  Putnam,  1845. 

Third  edition  of  the  same,  with  an  Appendix,  containing  an 
extended  review  from  the  North  British  Review  of  July,  1845.  New 
York:  Wiley  &  Putnam,  1845. 

Explanations.  A  sequel  to  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation. 
By  the  author  of  that  work.  New  York:  Wiley  &  Putnam,  1846. 
From  and  after  the  sixth  edition  the  explanations  were  added  as 
a  supplement  to  regular  editions  of  Vestiges.  The  author's  name, 
Robert  Chambers,  was  not  given  in  any  edition  of  the  Vestiges  until 
the  twelfth,  which  appeared  after  his  death. 


INDEX 


Abbatt,  William,  235. 

Abbott,  F.  E.,  letter  of  Herndon 
to,  142,  337,  344. 

Abbott,  Lyman,  on  Lincoln's  re 
ligion,  228-231. 

Abolitionist,  Lincoln  not  at  begin 
ning,  257;  how  he  became  one, 
268. 

Advance,  editorial  in,  181. 

Agnostic,  Lincoln  said  to  have 
been  an,  226,  229. 

Akers,  Rev.  Peter,  anti-slavery 
preacher,  241. 

Anthon,   Prof.   Charles,   184. 

Antietam,  Battle  of,  269. 

Arnold,  Hon.  I.   N.,  122,  315,  331, 

334- 
Astronomy,     Lincoln's     knowledge 

of,  33- 

Atheist,  Lincoln  was  not,  225. 
Atkinson,    Eleanor,    interview    with 

Dennis  Hanks,  38. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  281-282. 
Atonement  as  ground  for  universal 

salvation,   153. 

Bale,    Abraham,    Baptist    preacher, 

Baptists,  in  frontier  communities, 
34-45 ;  Lincoln  family  essentially 
Baptist,  50. 

Barrett,  J.  H.,  author  of  Life  of 
Lincoln,  25. 

Bartlett,  D.  W.,  author  of  Life  of 
Lincoln,  25. 

Bartlett,  Truman  H.,  correspond 
ence  with  Herndon,  264-267. 

Bateman,  Newton,  superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  in  Illinois; 
his  interview  with  Lincoln,  20; 
outline  of  life  and  service,  114- 
115;  Holland's  story  of  the 
interview,  114  s<eq.,  controversy 
with  Herndon,  121  seq.;  virtually 
repudiates  Holland  interview, 
123 ;  corrects  Lincoln's  grammar, 
124 ;  his  lecture  on  Lincoln,  125 ; 
what  Lincoln  probably  said  to 


him,  126 ;  extract  from  lecture  on 
Lincoln,  303,  328-329. 

Baxter,  Richard,  Lincoln's  quota 
tion,  289. 

Bayley,  T.  H.,  263. 

Beecher,  Edward,  67. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  198-201, 
288. 

Beecher,  Mrs.  Henry  Ward,  author 
of  an  honest  but  incredible  story, 
201. 

Bible,  Lincoln's  use  of,  93 ;  his  lec 
ture  on,  159,  354;  gift  of  colored 
people,  217,  276;  knowledge  of, 
261-262. 

Bibliography,   368-390. 

Binns,  Henry  B.,  English  biog 
rapher,  237. 

Biology,  Lincoln's  knowledge  of, 
170. 

Bishop,  William,  address  on  Lin 
coln,  160  seq. 

Black,  Chauncey  F.,  alleged  author 
of  Lamon's  "  Life  of  Lincoln," 
26,  129. 

Black,  J.  C,  315. 

Books,  read  by  Lincoln  in  youth, 
47;  read  few  in  later  years, 
166. 

Boyd,  Lucinda,  quoted,  39. 

Brodie,   Sir  Benjamin,  170. 

Brooks,  Noah,  327. 

Browning,  O.  H.,  249. 

Browning,  Mrs.  6.  H.,  53. 

Bryan   Hall  meeting,  268. 

Buck,    Solon   J.,   on   early    Illinois, 

Buckle,  Henry  T.,  author  of  "His 
tory  of  Civilization,"  29. 

Burns,  Robert,  Lincoln's  famil 
iarity  with,  150,  166,  263. 

"  Burnt  Book,"  Lincoln's,  146,  148, 
152  seq.,  320,  341,  346-347- 

Burton,  John  E.,  184,  208. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  author  of  "  Chris 
tian  Nurture,"  50,  288. 

Butterworth,  Hezekiah,  49. 

Byron,  Lincoln's  use  of,  263. 


401 


402 


INDEX 


Calhoun,  John,  loaned  Lincoln 
books  on  surveying,  54. 

Calvinism,  a  permanant  influence 
in  life  of  Lincoln,  171,  197, 
271. 

Carman,  Dr.  L.  DM  242. 

Carpenter,  Frank  B.,  painter  of 
Emancipation  picture,  206,  276, 
281,  285,  328,  334. 

Carr,  Clark  E.,  on  Lincoln,  104- 
105. 

Cartwright,  Peter,  pioneer  preacher, 
55;  candidate  against  Lincoln, 
61 ;  career,  63,  345. 

Case,  Lizzie  York,  "  There  is  no 
Unbelief,"  290. 

Catholic,  Lincoln  not  a,  231. 

Chambers,  Robert,  author  of  "  Ves 
tiges  of  Creation,"  166-171. 

Channing,  William  E.,  Lincoln 
reads,  175-178,  288. 

Chapman,  Ervin,  "  Latest  Light  on 
Lincoln,"  48;  on  the  Beecher  in 
cident,  199,  275,  286. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  account  of  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  283-284. 

Chiniquy,    Rev.    Charles,    188-197. 

Chittenden,  L.  E.,  188-197. 

"  Christian's  Defence,"  see  Smith, 
James. 

Christian   Advocate,  241. 

Christian  Leader,  183. 

Christian  Register,  183. 

Church,  Lincoln's  esteem  for,  240; 
why  he  did  not  join,  244  seq. 

Churches,  Lincoln  and  the,  377. 

Cogdal,  Isaac,  on  Lincoln's  religion, 
139,  287,  348-349. 

Colfax,   Schuyler,  95. 

Collum,  Shelby  M.,  67. 

Congregational  ministers,  petition 
and  delegation  to  influence  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  268-269. 

Cooper  Union  Address,  73,  262.  ^ 

Crawford,  Andrew,  teacher  of  Lin 
coln,  31,  33,  46. 

Creed,  Lincoln  did  not  formulate, 
291 ;  quotations  used  as  basis  of, 
292-299 ;  compiled  from  his  own 
utterances,  300. 

Davis,  David,  on  Lincoln's  religion, 
133,  248-249. 

Deming,  Henry  C,  address  on  Lin 
coln,  93-94,  244,  330. 

Dempster,  Rev.  John,  268. 


Dickens,  Charles,  Lincoln's  use  of, 
263. 

Disciples,  so-called  Campbellite 
church,  38. 

Dodge,  Daniel  Kilham,  261-262,  270. 

Dorsey,  Abel  W.,  teacher  of  Lin 
coln,  31. 

Douglas,  Fred,  247. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  61,  73,  76, 
104,  161,  263,  359. 

Douthit,  Rev.  Jasper,  238. 

Downey,  David  G.,  199. 

Dreams,  Lincoln  believed  in,  233- 
236. 

Dresser,  Rev.  Charles,  106. 

Edinburgh  Review,  167. 

Edwards,   Matilda,  52. 

Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  76;  testifies 
as  to  Lincoln's  changed  views, 
164,  324,  359- 

Elkin,  David,  preaches  at  Nancy 
Lincoln's  funeral,  34,  39,  41. 

Ellsworth,  Col.  Elmer,  128;  Lin 
coln's  letter  to  his  parents,  292. 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  evolu 
tion  of,  268-270,  281-286. 

English,  Dr.  J.  B.,  184. 

Farewell    Address    at    Springfield, 

84,  303-306- 

Fell,  Jesse  W.,  Lincoln  writes  bio 
graphical  sketch  for,  236 ;  pre 
sents  Lincoln  books  of  Channing 
and  Parker,  175,  321. 

Ford,  Governor  Thomas,  on  fron 
tier  preachers,  58-59 ;  on  "  Long 
Nine,"  82. 

Fowler,  Bishop  Charles  H.,  103; 
1 1 1  seq.,  242,  253. 

Freemason,  Lincoln  not  a,  242. 

Free-will  Baptist,  Thomas  Lincoln 
not  a,  37-38. 

Funerals,  often  deferred,  40-45. 

Geology,  Lincoln's  knowledge  of, 
170. 

Gesture,  Lincoln's  use  of,  263. 

Gordon,  Nathaniel,  293. 

Grady,  Josiah,  questions  Lincoln's 
religion,  138. 

Graham,  Mentor,  teacher  of  Lin 
coln,  32,  51,  67,  68,  136;  on  Lin 
coln's  "  Burnt  Book,"  152  seq., 
346-347- 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  253-254. 


INDEX 


403 


Green,  Bowling,  54,  185. 
Greene,  Gilbert  J.,  78-79. 
Gurley,  Rev.  Phineas  D.,  Lincoln's 

pastor    in    Washington,    87,    90, 

244,  245,  325-326. 
Gurney,  Eliza  P.,  88-00;  294. 

Hanks,  Dennis,  on  Lincoln's  youth, 
38,  49- 

Hanks,  John,  on  Lincoln's  impres 
sion  of  slavery,  96. 

Hannah,  William  H.,  on  Lincoln's 
faith,  287. 

Harnett,  Jonathan,  138,  349. 

"Harp,  French,"  246. 

Hay,  John,  author  of  "Life  of 
Lincoln,"  27. 

Hazel,  Caleb,  teacher  of  Lincoln, 
30. 

Head,  Rev.  Jesse,  240. 

Herndon,  W.  D.,  discussed  religion 
with  Lincoln,  132,  148. 

Herndon,  William  H.,  author  of 
"  Life  of  Lincoln,"  20,  24,  26, 
27,  35;  says  Lincoln  was  a  fatal 
ist,  50;  an  infidel,  61-62;  his 
visit  to  site  of  New  Salem,  62; 
his  lectures  on  Lincoln  62,  142- 
143;  his  partnership  with  Lin 
coln,  71 ;  on  Lincoln's  letter  to 
his  father,  77;  letter  from 
Nicolay,  91 ;  controversy  with 
Bateman,  121  seq.;  notes  of  his 
five  interviews,  125;  writes  a  life 
of  Lincoln,  140-145;  no  friend 
of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  140;  the  Abbott 
letter,  142;  his  letter  to  Dr. 
Smith,  141;  reply  to  Reed  lec 
ture,  141;  regretted  sale  of 
papers  to  Lamon,  143 ;  revised 
edition  of  his  work,  144;  per 
sonal  habits  and  religion,  144- 
145 ;  never  saw  Lincoln's  "  Burnt 
Book,"  148 ;  correspondence  with 
Bartlett,  264-267;  attempts  "to 
put  at  rest  forever"  the  charge 
that  Lincoln  was  an  atheist,  279; 
affirms  Lincoln's  faith  in  immor 
tality,  286;  reads  reply  to,  314 
seq.;  letters  concerning  Lincoln's 
religion,  336-340. 

Herrick,  Robert,  263. 

Hill,  Samuel,  burns  Lincoln  manu 
script,  146-155. 

Hodgenville,  Kentucky,  a  Baptist 
settlement,  34. 


Hodges,  A.  G.,  Lincoln's  letter  to, 
296. 

Holland,  Josiah  G.,  author  of 
"  Life  of  Lincoln,"  26 ;  asym 
metry  of  Lincoln's  life,  102  seq.; 
story  of  the  Bateman  incident, 
115-117;  prints  the  Reed  lecture 
in  Scribnefs  magazine,  135,  328- 
329,  337- 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  167. 

Holt,  Dr.  E.  E.,  on  Lincoln's 
dream,  235. 

Howells,  William  D.,  "Life  o£ 
Lincoln,"  25. 

Illinois  College,  67. 

Illinois,    twin    born    with    Lincoln, 

30. 
Insanity,     Lincoln's     approach     to, 

252. 
Irwin,  B.  R,  on  Lincoln's  religion, 

136,  287,  341. 

Jacquess,  Col.  James  F.,  story  of 
Lincoln's  conversion,  241,  309^3. 

Jacquess,  William  B.,  309. 

Johnny  Kongapod,  49,  271. 

Johns,  Mrs.  Jane  Martin,  reminis 
cences  of  Lincoln,  248  seq. 

Johnson,  John  D.,  Lincoln's  step 
brother,  77. 

Johnson,  William  J.,  author  of 
"Lincoln  the  Christian,"  48;  on 
the  Beecher  incident,  199,  235. 

Kansas,  Lincoln  visits,  73. 

Keckley,    Elizabeth,   203-204. 

Keys,  I.  W.,  loaned  Lincoln  "  Ves 
tiges  of  Creation,"  277. 

Kirkham's  Grammar,  studied  by 
Lincoln,  51,  67,  185. 

Knox  College,  125. 

Krone,  David,  249. 

Lamon,  Ward  Hill,  author  of 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  26,  47,  52; 
affirms  Lincoln  permitted  himself 
to  be  misrepresented,  76;  quotes 
Herndon  on.  Lincoln's  letter  to 
his  father,  78 ;  answer  to  Hol 
land,  117-120;  his  relations  with 
Lincoln,  128 ;  his  life  of  Lincoln 
an  unfinished  fragment,  128 ;  the 
controversy  growing  out  of  his 
book,  128-134;  Black,  the  author, 
129;  his  recollections,  134;  on 


404 


INDEX 


Lincoln's     "Burnt     Book,"     146; 
affirms  Lincoln's  faith  essentially 
that  of  Parker,  279;  reads  reply 
to,  314-wtf. 
Lewis,   Thomas,    158-163,   256,   325, 

359- 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  sixteenth  presi 
dent  of  the  United  States;  pe 
riods  of  his  life,  29;  birth  of, 
boyhood,  30  s-eq.;  schools  and 
teachers,  30-33;  early  religious 
privileges,  33  seq.;  early  influ 
ence  Baptist,  34  seq.;  migration 
to  Illinois,  51;  on  flat-boat,  51; 
at  New  Salem,  51  seq.;  studies 
grammar,  51 ;  works  on  flat-boat, 
51 ;  service  in  Blackhawk  War, 
52;  candidate  for  legislature,  52; 
keeper  of  post  office,  52;  love 
affairs,  52-53;  influenced  by  life 
in  New  Salem,  54;  did  not  drink 
or  swear,  55;  Herndon's  state 
ment  of  his  religion,  61 ;  known 
as  "  Honest  Abe,"  70 ;  removal  to 
Springfield,  71 ;  his  partnerships, 
71 ;  beginnings  of  his  interest  in 
slavery,  72;  early  orations,  72; 
important  cases,  73;  marriage, 
73;  election  as  president,  73;  his 
children,  75;  death  of  Eddie,  75; 
letter  to  dying  father,  77;  com 
forts  a  dying  woman,  78;  his 
stories,  80;  religious  life  in 
Springfield,  81 ;  development  of 
political  ideals,  82;  in  Armstrong 
trial,  83;  ethical  aspects  of  the 
slavery  issue,  83,  268;  farewell  at 
Springfield,  84;  inauguration  as 
President,  86;  outline  of  his  ad 
ministration,  assassination,  and 
death,  87 ;  death  of  Willie,  95  ;  why 
he  freed  the  slaves,  96;  domestic 
affairs,  106;  read  "  Artemus 
Ward,"  111;  the  charges  in 
Lamon's  biography,  130-134;  his 
"Burnt  Book,"  146-155;  reads 
"The  Christian's  Defence,"  156 
seq.;  pronounces  it  unanswerable, 
164;  reads  "Vestiges  of  Crea 
tion,"  166-171;  reads  Channing 
and  Parker,  172  seq.;  erased 
words  in  Greek  exercise  book, 
183;  the  Chittenden  interview, 
188  seq.;  the  Chiniquy  interview, 
188  seq.;  alleged  visit  to  Beecher, 
198  seq.;  the  Sickles  interview, 


201  seq.;  life  in  the  White  House, 
203  seq.;  sorrow  at  death  of 
Willie,  204;  alleged  statement, 
"  I  do  love  Jesus,"  208 ;  religious 
character  of  his  proclamations, 
210-221;  not  an  atheist,  225;  not 
a  ^  Roman  Catholic,  231 ;  not  a 
spiritualist,  232;  not  addressed  as 
"  Abe,"  233 ;  believed  in  dreams 
and  signs,  233;  not  a  Quaker, 
236;  questioned  supernatural  birth 
of  Jesus,  but  not  a  Unitarian, 
238;  denied  eternal  punishment, 
but  not  a  Universalist,  238;  not 
a  Methodist,  240;  not  a  Free 
mason,  242;  attended  a  revival, 
244;  why  he  did  not  join  the 
church,  244  seq.;  the  creed  he 
could  have  accepted,  245;  lacked 
some  of  the  finer  feelings,  246; 
his  dress,  247;  possessed  an  in 
nate  courtesy,  247-249 ;  helps  move 
a  piano,  250;  morbidly  cautious, 
252;  breadth  of  his  religious  na 
ture,  253;  not  symmetrical  in 
his  development,  254;  essentially 
Calvinistic,  254,  271 ;  his  capacity 
for  obstinacy,  255 ;  his  ability  to 
evade  an  issue,  257;  his  periods 
of  mental  uncertainty,  258;  his 
literary  style,  261 ;  use  of  quota 
tions,  262 ;  seldom  told  stories  in 
speeches,  263 ;  thought  and  moved 
slowly,  264;  his  characteristic 
pioneer  trails,  265;  an  embodi 
ment  of  contrasts,  266;  neutral 
and  spiritual  evolution,  267;  in 
terview  with  Chicago  ministers, 
268-269;  his  changed  style  of 
oratory,  270;  his  religious  devel 
opment,  270-27*5;  his  belief  in 
universal  salvation,  272;  in  im 
morality,  273,  286;  his  references 
to  God,  273-274;  his  belief  in  the 
Bible,  274-275;  in  Jesus  Christ, 
275-277;  his  question  of  the 
supernatural  birth,  277-278;  in 
divine  destiny  and  prayer,  280- 
281 ;  his  promise  to  God,  281-286 ; 
in  future  but  not  endless  punish 
ment,  287;  not  a  theologian,  289; 
his  quotation  from  Baxter,  289; 
materials  for  his  creed,  291-209; 
his  creed  in  his  own  words, 
300. 
Lincoln,  Edward  Baker,  son  of  the 


INDEX 


405 


President,  birth  and  death,  75, 
258. 

Lincoln,  Mary  Todd,  wife  of  Abra 
ham;  courtship  and  marriage, 
52-53,  73,  103;  relates  incident 
of  morning  of  inaugural,  86; 
unites  with  Presbyterian  Church, 
159,  255-256;  broken  engage 
ment  and  wedding,  252. 

Lincoln,  Nancy  Hanks,  mother  of 
the  President,  marriage,  30,  48^ 
315;  death  of,  31,  40;  at  public 
worship,  34;  funeral,  40  seq. 

Lincoln,  Robert  Todd,  son  of 
President,  39;  birth,  75. 

Lincoln,  Sally,  or  Sarah  Bush,  sec 
ond  wife  of  Thomas,  31 ;  her  re 
ligion,  37,  47,  50;  supplied  infor 
mation  to  Herndon,  36;  her  love 
for  Abraham,  50. 

Lincoln,  Sarah,  daughter  of 
Thomas  and  Nancy  (sometimes 
incorrectly  called  Nancy),  34: 
united  with  Pigeon  Creek 
Church,  37. 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  father  of  the 
President;  marriages,  30,  31,  315; 
religion  of,  34,  36-45;  a  thriftless 
farmer,  51 ;  Abraham's  letter  to, 

Lincoln,  Thomas,  "  Tad,"  son  of 
the  President,  birth  and  death, 

75- 

Lincoln,  William  Wallace,  son  of 
the  President;  birth,  75;  death, 

95- 

Logan,  Stephen  T.,  Lincoln's  part 
ner,  71,  249. 

Logan,  Thomas  D.,  address  on 
Lincoln,  75;  learned  of  Dr. 
Smith's  book  in  1909,  157. 

Lyon,  Benjamin,  early  Baptist  min 
ister,  34. 

Maryland  Historical  Society,  269. 

Matheny,  James  H.,  on  Lincoln's 
religion,  133-135,  137;  Herndon's 
authority  for  the  story  of  Lin 
coln's  "  Burnt  Book,"  148,  320- 
321,  343. 

Maynard,  Nettie  Colburn,  232. 

McCrie,  George  M.,  226. 

McNamur,  John,  lover  of  Ann 
Rutledge,  151. 

Medill,  Joseph,  269. 

Melancholy,  Lincoln's  habitual,  252. 


Methodist  Church,  little  influence 
in  life  of  the  Lincoln  family,  48; 
Lincoln's  high  regard  for,  240. 

Miner,  Rev.  Dr.,  86,  333-334- 

Ministers  in  early  Illinois  politics, 
59-6"  i. 

"  Miracles  under  law,"  171,  279. 

Missouri   Compromise,  268. 

Morgan,  G.  H.,  quoted,  21. 

Morse,  John  T.,  Jr.,  author  of 
"Life  of  Lincoln,"  27. 

Mostiller,  Thomas,  on  Lincoln's  re 
ligion,  138,  347-348. 

Murray,  Lindley,  author  of  English 
Reader,  32. 

Music,  little  appreciated  by  Lincoln, 
246. 

New    England,    Lincoln    visits,    73. 

New  Light  Church  at  Farmington, 
38. 

New  Salem,  Illinois,  51 ;  influence 
on  Lincoln,  54;  Lincoln's  Alma 
Mater,  67. 

Newton,  Joseph  Fort,  author  of 
"Lincoln  and  Herndon,"  26,  129. 

Nicolay,  John  G.,  author  of  "  Life 
of  Lincoln,  27,  31 ;  letter  concern 
ing  Lincoln's  religion,  91,  279-280, 
321. 

Nielson,  William,  his  book  on 
Greek  Syntax  owned  by  Lincoln, 
183. 

Offutt,  Denton,  51. 
Oldroyd,  Osborn  H.,  208. 
Olmsted,  Charles  G.,  76,  358  seq. 
Onstott,    T.    G.,    reminiscences    of 

New  Salem,   54  seq. 
Open  Court,  articles  in,  225-227. 
Owens,  Mary,  courted  by  Lincoln, 

52,  69. 

Paine,  Thomas,  author  of  "  Age  of 
Reason,"  read  by  Lincoln,  19,  61, 
63,  146,  152,  343- 

Parker,  Theodore,  Lincoln  reads, 
175-178,  288. 

Patton,  Rev.  William  W.,  268. 

Paul  at  Malta,  260. 

Pease,  Theodore  C,  on  early  Il 
linois,  56,  59. 

Peck,  John  Mason,  preacher  in 
early  Illinois,  59. 

Peters,  Madison,  on  Religion  of 
Lincoln,  34. 


406 


INDEX 


Philosophy,    unknown    to    Lincoln, 

171. 

Piano,  Lincoln  helps  to  move,  250. 
Poems  loved  by  Lincoln,  166. 
Poetry,  Lincoln's  use  of,  246,  263. 
Poetry  and  religion,  230. 
Pomeroy,  Rebecca  R.,  205-206. 
Pope,  Alexander,  263. 
Presbyterian,  Thomas  Lincoln  was 

not,  37- 

Quakers,  Lincoln's  attitude  toward, 
88,  236,  237. 

Rankin,  Henry  B.,  245. 

Ray,  Dr.  C.  H.,  on  Lincoln's  re 
ligion,  133. 

Reed,  Rev.  James  A.,  his  lecture 
and  the  controversy  which  fol 
lowed,  135  seq.;  158;  text  of  lec 
ture,  314,  337. 

Reid,  William,  letter  on  Lincoln's 
religion,  352-356. 

Religion    in    Kentucky    backwoods, 

34« 

Religion,  more  and  other  than 
theology,  22;  part  and  parcel  of 
Lincoln's  life,  267. 

Remsburg,  J.  E.,  Herndon's  letter 
to,  336. 

Reynolds,  Governor,  on  early  Il 
linois,  57. 

Rickard,  Sarah,  alleged  to  have 
been  courted  by  Lincoln,  52. 

Riney,  Zachariah,  teacher  of  Lin 
coln,  30. 

Roberts,  William  Henry,  90. 

Roby,  Katy    (Mrs.   Allen   Gentry), 

33- 

Roper,  R.  C.,  on  Lincoln's  religion, 

227. 
Rusling,     General     James     F.,     on 

Sickles   interview,  201-202. 
Rutledge,  Ann,  courted  by  Lincoln, 

52  s*q.;  62,  69,  143,  352. 
Rutledge,  James,  father  of  Ann,  54. 

Science,  little  known  by  Lincoln, 
171. 

Scott,  Milton  R.,  253. 

Scott,  Walter,  Lincoln's  use  of,  263. 

Scoville,  Samuel,  199. 

Scripps,  John  Locke,  "  Life  of  Lin 
coln,"  24. 

Shakspeare,  Lincoln's  use,  263. 

Shields,  James  T.,  72. 


Shipman,  Elder,  alleged  Unitarian 
minister,  181. 

Shirley,  Ralph,  268. 

Shrigley,  Rev.  James,  356-357. 

Sickles,  General  D.  E.,  interview 
with  Lincoln,  201-202. 

Slavery,  beginnings  of  Lincoln's 
interest  in,  72;  growth  of  moral 
aspect,  83;  "If  not  wrong,  noth 
ing  is  wrong,"  296. 

Smith,  Jeannette  E.,  158. 

Smith,  Rev.  James,  Lincoln's  pastor 
at  Springfield,  75-76;  relations 
with  Lincoln,  132,  136;  his  life 
and  ministry,  156;  his  sermon  on 
temperance,  157;  Lincoln  be 
comes  a  member  of  his  congre 
gation,  159;  Lincoln  reads  "The 
Christian's  Defence/'  162;  change 
in  Lincoln's  views,  164;  con 
vinced  Lincoln  but  did  not  wholly 
satisfy,  270,  323-324,  353-3541 
complete  chapter  analysis  of  the 
book,  358  seq. 

Smith,  Winfield,  289. 

Speed,  Joshua  Fry,  92-93,  236,  336- 
337- 

Spiritualist,  Lincoln  not  a,  232. 

Stanton,  Theodore,  article  by,  226. 

State  Fair  Speech  of  Lincoln,  257. 

Stories,  Lincoln's,  80,  263. 

Stuart,  John  T.,  Lincoln's  partner, 
71 ;  on  Lincoln's  religion,  132, 
249,  256,  319-320. 

Sunderland,  Rev.  Byron,  332-333. 

Superstition,  Lincoln  believed  in, 
233,  236. 

Swett,  Leonard,  249. 

Tarbell,  Ida,   M.,  author  of  "Life 

of  Lincoln,"  27. 
Teillard,  Dorothy  Lamon,   129-130, 

134- 

Thomas,  Lewis,  244. 
Toleman,  letter  of,  238. 

Unitarian,    Lincoln    was    not,    180, 

238. 
Universalist,  Lincoln  was  not,  238. 

Vandalia,  state  capital  of  Illinois, 
52. 

"  Vestiges  of  Creation,"  by  Robert 
Chambers,  166-171,  255,  265. 

Vinton,  Rev.  Francis,  alleged  inter 
view  with  Lincoln,  206. 


INDEX 


407 


Volney,  Constantin  Francois,  author 
of  "Ruins,"  read  by  Lincoln,  19, 
61,  63,  146,  152. 

Voodoo  Fortune-teller,  Lincoln 
visits,  236. 

"  Ward,  Artemus,"  read  by  Lin 
coln,  113,  307- 

Watson,  Rev.  Edward  L.,  story  of 
Lincoln's  conversion,  24  ,  309. 

Weik,  Jesse  W.,  associate  of 
Herndon  in  authorship  of  "Life 
of  Lincoln,"  26;  opinion  of 
Thomas  Lincoln's  religion,  39; 
searches  for  lost  Herndon  papers, 
125. 


Welles,  Gideon,  268,  281. 

Westminster  Review,  167,  226. 

Whitcomb,  Rev.  W.  W.,  sermon  on 
Lincoln,  208. 

White,  Charles  T.,  80. 

White,  Horace,  26,  27,   129. 

White,  William  Allen,  no. 

Whitney,  Henry  C,  on  Lincoln's 
religion,  94-95;  on  Lincoln's 
lack  of  method,  103,  246,  247, 
254,  263. 

Wigwam  edition  of  "  Life  of  Lin 
coln,"  24. 

Wilberforce,    Bishop    Samuel,    170. 

Yates,  Governor  Richard,  310. 


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